new story
by iars
Summary: The adventures of a small fleet of Star Trek ships that get transplanted to the Babylon 5 universe
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole**

During the Dominion war, the Federation and its allies were engaged in a vicious struggle against the Dominion and its horde. Despite of some successes, it was clear to Starfleet Command that they were fighting a loosing battle. For every ship they destroyed, for every Jem'Hedar they killed, the Dominion was creating two. Something had to be done because the outcome looked bleak. To this end, the war-planners at Starfleet gathered an elite group of officers and created the Strike Force. Their mission, attack and destroy shipyards, supply bases, training centers, cloning facilities and any targets of opportunity behind enemy lines, deep in the heart of the Dominion territory.

Captain Thomas Payne from the Galaxy Class USS Baikonur commanded SF Bravo, one of the four strike forces recently created. 4 Akira Class Starships, the Repulse, the Gneisenau, the Dhahq and the Kidd supported it. In addition to the 4 Akiras, SF Bravo also had 5 Defiant-class starships providing escort/picket duties. These were the Harbin, the Mindanao, the Udaloy, the Tarantul and the Hanoi. A pair of Vor'chas flying the flag for the Klingon Empire would also accompany them. Captain Payne wasn't too keen on having a bunch of short tempered Klingons attached to his fleet but had been overruled. Starfleet felt that the unity of the Allies was more important than the feelings of a lowly Captain. Besides, it added considerable firepower to the already strong strike force.

Outside of DS9, the fleet was busy going over last minute procedures before departing for the Gamma Quadrant. Their mission was simple in theory; destroy any strategic targets and all targets of opportunity. In practice, Payne knew it would be different. Nothing was ever so simple.

"Captain, all ships have reported in and we are ready for departure." He acknowledged Commander Josephine Yara his First Officer and turned to Ensign Jacobs at the communication station, "Jacobs, open a channel to DS9."

"Aye sir."

"Captain Sisko, Strike Force Bravo is ready and would like permission to depart."

"You are cleared for departure, Captain Payne. Good luck and good hunting."

"Thank you." Turning back to the Ensign Jacobs, he ordered, "Signal the fleet to follow us. Commander Sato, take us out, quarter impulse."

As Strike-Force Bravo formed up and dove for the wormhole, it was greeted by the spectacular display as the wormhole opened up to accept them. The display was so mesmerizing that even people who had practically spent all their adult lives among the stars couldn't help but be awestruck. As soon as they entered, the wormhole closed behind them as it whisked them thousand of light years in just a fraction of the time ordinarily needed to traverse the distance. Before long, it spit them out in the heart of the Gamma Quadrant, deep inside the Dominion territory.

No sooner had they entered the Gamma Quadrant, they were pounced on by a Dominion force of over a 100 ships. Quickly, the group broke rank as they performed evasive maneuvers. They fought back valiantly but the odds were stacked against them. They were being whittled down methodically.

First to come under fire was the Hanoi; it was caught in crossfire from no less than three different attack ships simultaneously. They rained the ship with a hail of phased polaron beams and torpedoes. While the shields withstood the assault momentarily, it wasn't enough and it collapsed leaving the ship vulnerable to further attacks. Lt. Steve Moore, who was manning the auxiliary weapons console, was struck in the left arm by a piece of shrapnel from an exploding console on his left, but he felt no pain. However, as soon as he tried to use his injured hand, he was gripped by intense pain that shot through his injured arm. There was another explosion behind him and he instinctively looked back. Captain Deloose was in the process of issuing new orders when a heavy piece of bulkhead crashed down on him, killing him instantly. Commander Kelan, the First Officer who had been knocked to the floor by a glancing blow from the same bulkhead made a desperate attempt to get back to his feet but crumpled back to the floor after having just managed to get halfway up. As the remaining crew in the acrid smoke filled bridge frantically tried to fight back, it was devastated by another phased polaron beam that struck dead on target. Having lost the bridge, the ship spun out of control and cart wheeled end over end till a torpedo found its mark rupturing the anti matter storage containers. USS Hanoi ended it short service to the Federation in a spectacular explosion that would have rivaled many stars for the briefest moment.

The USS Repulse wasn't faring any better. Numerous attack ships too pummeled her simultaneously. As portions of her shields failed briefly, some of the strikes hit home ripping off large sections of her armored hull. As the breach occurred, some of the unfortunate crew was sucked out of the tear before emergency force fields could seal it off. Ensign Lloyd McLean was a little luckier than most and was only tossed around like a piece of wet cloth in a dryer instead of being spaced and then slammed into the now reformed shields. Bruised and battered, he struggled to his feet to inspect the damage. There were signs of horrible carnage everywhere. Others not lucky enough still lay crumpled on the floor like so many rag dolls. Lt. Farley the officer in charge, just couldn't stomach the scene. He broke down and started yelling, "Abandon ship!" McLean although shaken still had his wits about him and stumbled over to the lieutenant and slapped him across the face several times.

Edna Thomas was an engineer assigned to monitoring the secondary fusion reactors on board the Repulse and she wasn't too happy at the moment. Two of them were already offline and a third was going critical. If she didn't shut it down immediately, it would go critical taking out a substantial portion of the already wounded ship. She yelled to the Bollian Chief Engineer Tonal, "Reactor number 2 is going critical. I'm going to have to shut it down." "We need all the power we can get Thomas," he yelled back. "Try to hold it together for a little while longer." "I can't sir, if I don't shut it down now it's going to blow apart." "Damn! Do what you have to." If this wasn't enough, the engineer monitoring the warp core brought further bad news. "Commander, the warp core is past the thermal limits. It cannot sustain this power output for much longer." "Tell me something I don't already know," he muttered under his breath. The ship rocked violently yet again as another beam found its mark. Ensign Minos who was monitoring the shield emitters on the port side did not like that one bit. Already 20 percent of the emitters on that side had burnt out and the rest were straining to make up the difference. This latest hit took out another good number. "Commander, we're down 34 percent portside shield emitters." Tonal was not very happy with the string of updates. "Captain, we can't take this much longer." The ship jolted again as another polaron beam found its mark. The lights flickered momentarily but came back up. "Another hit like that and the cores going to..." before he could even finish his sentence they were hit yet again. The warp core experienced a huge surge and was going critical when Tonal slammed his hand down on the emergency shutdown switch that barely managed to engage the dead-man's switch. It was the only thing that prevented a catastrophic runaway reaction that would have consumed the whole ship. Unfortunately, his action left the ship powerless and without an active shield. The next stream of beams had a much easier task and they tore up the USS Repulse, her defiant armor unable to protect them from the onslaught. Captain Okawa had no choice but to order everyone to abandon ship. It started a subdued pandemonium as everyone ran to the closest escape pods. Many made it but there were hundreds that didn't before another volley completely eviscerated the once mighty ship. Even then, some that did make it were unfortunate enough to be within blast range as the ship finally blew apart.

Meanwhile, Captain Payne was concentrating hard trying to coordinate the battle as best as he could under the circumstances. Somehow, the Dominion had intercepted them before the mission even got underway. He wasn't sure whether it was pure luck on their part or they had some inside help. Over the cacophony, he heard Jacobs yell out that they had just lost the Repulse. This wasn't good. That was the second ship he had just lost. He could sit here and duke it out with the Dominion but that was only going to lead to the loss of all his ships. There were just too many enemy ships for his small force to deal with. "Signal all ships to form up and retreat. Ketai, beam the survivors of the Repulse onboard."

"That would mean dropping our shield, Sir."

"Damn it! I know that. I am not going leave anyone under my command to the Dominion's mercy. Signal the rest of the fleet to cover us as we rescue them"

The Baikonur swooped down over the escape pods and beamed as many onboard as they could without sustaining too much damage herself. It was a tricky maneuver but they pulled it off. As soon as this was done the fleet turned direction and high-tailed it towards the wormhole.

The Dominion had other ideas though. They weren't going to let these ships go if they had anything to say about it. They pursued the fleet all the way to the edge of the wormhole without letting up at all. As their quarry was just about to escape, they fired off a last volley of torpedoes hoping to catch them before they entered the wormhole. They miscalculated. Instead of hitting the ships before they entered the wormhole, it chased the ships into the wormhole proper. The Vorta in charge was horrified as the explosion caused the wormhole to flare up to a degree never seen before. Then in a flash, it was gone. Dear god, what was he going to tell the founders? They needed the wormhole just as much as the Federation did.

It was worse for the people caught in the blast. The usually serene passage turned turbulent tossing the ships like pieces of debris caught in a whirlpool. Already battered by the Dominion, the ships were given such a thrashing that it threatened to rip them apart. Commander Yara was worried, if this kept up for much longer, the ships would be torn apart. Already the structural integrity field was straining to keep everything intact. "Sir, the Harbin is loosing her structural integrity field. Captain DeSai says she can't hold on much longer." To everyone's relief the pounding stopped suddenly as the wormhole spit them out into the calm of space. Relief at last!


	2. Along Came the Spider

**Chapter Two: Along Came the Spider**

Captain Payne promptly studied the status of his fleet. Although he had lost the Hanoi and Repulse, he was glad that the rest had made it back given the ferocity of the battle and the overwhelming odds they had faced. The turbulent passage through the wormhole had only made matters worse. Every ship had sustained various levels of damage with the Kidd and the Udaloy having fared the worst. They were so severely mauled that they would have to be put into dry dock for repairs. It'd be weeks before they could be brought back to fighting form again. A distressed helmsman interrupted his train of thought. "Sir, I think you should take a look at this."

"What is it?"

"It's DS9 sir, it's gone."

"What?" He quickly scanned the sensor readings and realized that Sato was right. There was no sign of DS9. It had to be the sensors. He ordered engineering to check their sensors and scanned the area again but it still came up negative. Believing that their sensors were faulty, he ordered the rest of the fleet to follow suit. Nothing! Fearing the worst, he ordered astrometrics to run a detailed scan of the area. He needed to know what was going on.

After what seemed like hours, they got their answer. Not only were they lost, it seemed that they weren't in their own universe at all. Somehow, their journey through the wormhole had deposited them into a different universe. To make matters worse, there was no sign of the wormhole that had brought them here.

Captain Payne promptly held an impromptu meeting with all the captains to assess the situation. Once seated around the table, Captain Payne asked his science officer Lieutenant Tagget to explain to the gathered what had transpired. "As of now, we only have a working hypothesis," he started. "My staff is currently going over all the sensor logs to paint a better picture but that could take a while. The prevailing theory is that when the dominion torpedoes exploded in the wormhole, it caused an energy spike; temporarily displacing the end coordinates of the wormhole from DS9 to our current position. Where this current position is, we aren't sure. We haven't been able to get an exact fix yet." There was a stunned silence for a while. Finally Captain Puchenko broke the silence, "Has this ever happened before?" He had wanted to ask if they could get back but decided to hold that question for a while. "Yes it has, on several occasions Captain. There are a number of recorded incidents in which starships have found themselves transplanted to a different universe. Even Captain Kirk had one such incident. They all occurred under different circumstances though." "What does that mean?" "Well, although Starfleet has records of temporal and universal displacements, it has always happened under unique circumstances. Therefore, that knowledge may or may not help us in our present situation." "I see." This went on for quite a while as the apprehensive captains asked many question. Few got satisfactory answers.

Next on the agenda was to determine their game plan. They were in a strange universe cut off from the rest of Starfleet and had to come up with something if they were to survive this ordeal. After a lengthy discussion they finally arrived at an accord. Their first order of business was to get the repairs completed as best as they could under the circumstance and take care of their wounded. Once this was done they would start looking for ways to get back.

Several weeks had passed since their arrival in this strange universe and most of the repairs were complete. They had been busy trying to figure out a way back to their own reality but so far had had no luck. This was starting to take a toll on crew morale. After another meeting to address this problem, the captains decided to look for help from the natives. Maybe they knew something about the phenomenon that that transported them here. It was a shot in the dark but still better than nothing.

At first, only the Mindanao and the Tarantul were assigned to this duty. Being Defiant-class ships, they lacked the advanced science labs and sensors of the bigger ships so they would serve better as scouts. They were soon joined by their sister ships the Harbin and the Udaloy. It was during one of these scouting trips that the Mindanao and the Tarantul ran into trouble.

The pair was surveying a star system about 10 light years from the main fleet when they ran into a heavy localized asteroid field surrounding a gas giant. There was something strange about this asteroid field. It seemed as if a small moon or asteroid had been attacked and reduced to rubble. The presence of debris of numerous vessels scattered throughout the asteroid field seemed to support this hypothesis. Something terrible had happened here. However, an even more interesting find was the carcass of what seemed like a gigantic spider. Although its life signs were very faint, it was still alive. This finding fascinated Captain Narayan. He had encountered lots of life forms during his distinguished career in Starfleet but had never seen something as large and sinister as this. Stating it as large was something of an understatement as the creature easily dwarfed the 170m long Mindanao. Even in the current state, the creature easily measured some 1000m across from tip to tip. A voice in the back of his mind told him to leave the creature alone but Captain Narayan couldn't bring himself to do so. Something was pulling him closer. Being the senior Captain, he instructed the Tarantul to carry on surveying the rest of the system while he studied the creature.

_She woke up to a pounding headache. No, it felt more like her whole body was on fire. For a while, she couldn't figure out why, but as her senses cleared up she started to remember what had happened. There had been an intense fight and she had been in the midst of it. Her masters had sent her to accomplish the job and she had done it. It had been awfully painful but she had carried it out nonetheless. Her masters were going to be proud of her. But first, she must get back. Slowly she looked around to get her bearings and then she noticed the small ship that was scanning her. It was like no ship she had encountered before. Nonetheless, they were poking and prodding her with strange sensors. She didn't like being invaded like this. She was a ship of the line and they need to show her respect. She was going to teach them to fear the wrath of the shadows. Having decided on her course of action she struck out._

Tarik was on duty at the weapons control. The moment he had laid eyes on the menacing creature, he knew it reeked of trouble. His first instinct was to turn and head the other way but Captain Narayan had other ideas. Why anyone would want to be so close to such a vile creature, he simply couldn't understand. But orders were orders. So instead of putting distance between themselves and the creature, they were up close and studying it. But being the weapons officer, Tarik never let his guard down. The moment he noticed a power surge in the creature, he raised shield without even being ordered to do so. It was this quick reaction that saved their lives. The creature emitted a powerful beam that slammed into the shields. "Shields down 30 percent," he yelled out.

_She couldn't believe what she saw. The little ship had actually withstood the blast. Some sort of energy shield had stopped the beam dead in its track. Given her present condition, dispatching this little ship was going to be harder than she had anticipated._

"Evasive pattern Alpha 2," Captain Narayan barked out. "Lock weapons on target and return fire." The Mindanao burst into action like a bat out of hell. Before the Shadow Battle Crab realized what was happening, she came under fire.

_She yelled out in pain as beams of energy licked her dark skin. She had been shot at before but nothing had come close to hurting like she now felt. She tried to fight back but the little ship was moving fast, too fast. In her present state she could not track the ship effectively and most of her shots missed their mark while theirs did not. Again and again it lashed out at her. Every time the orange beam hit her, it clawed at her armored hide with devastating results. The last shot tore off one of her arms and blood spurted out into the coldness of space as her amputated arm slowly drifted away. She had to get away. If she did not, she knew she would die. She had to get back and warn her masters. She tried to flee but the little ship was right on her tail. She then tried to phase into hyperspace but just as she was phasing out, a pair of glowing balls of energy that simply tore her apart struck her. Oh, the pain... She was loosing control. Mercifully, darkness enveloped her as she was hit again._

Captain Narayan let out a sigh of relief. The Mindanao had taken a good beating. Any more hits from that energy beam and it would have been the end. He wondered how much damage they had taken. "Damage report!"

"We have 3 wounded, sir. There's also hull damage on decks 2 and 3, section 12, forward shield emitters have taken a beating and the warp drive is offline. Engineering is already working on restoring warp drive. It will be at least an hour before we have it back online."

"Good work everyone. Number One, contact the Tarantul. Let them know of our situation."

"They're already on their way sir. Here she comes."

Captain Ahmed on the Tarantul had been on the other side of the star system when the skirmish started. She raced to aid the Mindanao but she feared they wouldn't make it in time. Luckily for the Mindanao, the Shadow battle crab was already heavily damaged. And although it put up a stiff fight, they prevailed in the end, albeit with quite a bit of damage. "Captain Narayan, good to see you made it through. Do you need any assistance?"

"No thanks. Were on top of the situation. We took some damage though and won't be going anywhere soon. I suggest you cover us just in case there are more of those things around."

"We will. I'm going to cloak and hang around. Oh, there's something else Jason. While you were playing around here, we were doing some research and guess what we found."

The two Captains were close friends having served on the same ship on numerous occasions. They always poked and jibed at each other, "Something interesting perhaps..."

"You can say that. Anyway, we found this strange device by the 2nd gas giant." she said transmitting the image of the strange looking device. "What do you think it is?"

"Looks like some kind of communication device, like the Midas array."

"Probably, we should have one of the bigger ships take a look at it. They better equipped than we are."


	3. Miss Communication

**Chapter Three: Miss Communication**

Captain Vladimir Puchenko of the USS Gneisenau had been assigned the task of studying the strange device found by the Mindanao and the Tarantul almost a week ago. Because of the circumstances under which it was discovered, the USS Udaloy under Captain Koral had been assigned to him as an escort. He hoped he wouldn't need the extra firepower and it seemed he was right. He had a science team pouring over the structure with a fine toothcomb and had come up with intriguing results. To begin with, the structure seemed to be made out of a very rare isotope of indium, which couldn't be replicated easily. How or why someone had come up with this vast amount of rare isotope was beyond comprehension. Whatever, this device did, it had to be worth the effort. It also seemed to be powered by a series of powerful fusion reactors with some impressive output. He had ruled out the probability of it being a communication array for that reason. Why would a communication array need that much power ... unless it was heavily shielded. That explained it. It must need all that power to shield it against attacks. That had to be it. That also meant that this was a military installation. There had recently been a major battle in this sector, so why hadn't the enemy just blown up this device? After all, it would only have taken a single photon torpedo to destroy the whole array as it was right now without any shields.

A very excited science officer rudely interrupted Puchenko's thoughts, "Sir, the device is powering up!"

"Raise shields! Helmsman, move us back ten thousand kilometers," he ordered, his eyes glued to the view screen. Suddenly, the device surged with intense power and then it ripped open a hole in the very fabric of space. It resembled a wormhole but was unlike any they had previously encountered. What happened next was equally strange, a fleet of ships that looked like giant angel fishes poured out of the wormhole and took up position in front of him as the device deactivated. "Hail them."

"They are not answering sir."

"Keep trying."

Captain Selan of the Minbari War Cruiser Teshkat had a worried look on his face. It had been almost 8 days since they had received a distress call from their colony in the Sh'lekk'tha star system near the Centauri Republic border. The description of the attackers they had received seemed eerily close to that of a shadow battle crab. If that was true, then his fleet of 5 Sharlin-class War Cruisers might not be enough. After all, no less than 7 Sharlins had defended the secret base. On the bright side, there was another fleet of five more Sharlins on their way and would be arriving shortly after his fleet. With that in mind, he ordered his ship to activate the jump gate and proceed to normal space. He was surprised by what greeted him.

As soon as all his ships had filed up around him, he hailed the ship confronting them. It was a small ship no more than 500 meters in length and of a design he had not encountered before. A single largish fighter escorted it. Upon closer examination, he noticed the ships name and registry boldly emblazoned across its dorsal surface. It read USS Gneisenau, NCC 63329. Damn Humans! He had never liked the Humans. What were they doing out here in Minbari space? Were they responsible for the attack on their colony? He doubted that. None of the younger races in their right mind would dare challenge the might of Minbar. But why were they not returning his hails? He was going to try one last time and if they did not respond he would evict them by force. Too bad they had already forgotten their humiliating defeat so soon.

"Sir, they aren't responding to our hails."

"Keep trying on all channels."

"They just scanned us with tachyon beams sir."

"They must be expecting cloaked vessels. Is the Udaloy cloaked?"

"No sir, she isn't cloaked. She is on our portside and has just closed rank with us."

"Keep hailing them. Lieutenant Edwards, what can you tell me about them?"

"They are about 1600 meters long with a mass of about 40 million metric tons. They seem to be powered by a single quantum singularity reactor and numerous fusion reactors. They are armed with various gravimetric and EM cannons and posses very thick armor, up to 10 meters thick, composition unknown. I do not detect any shield generators though."

"Are they dangerous?"

"From their power readings, I would say yes. However, I do not have any information on their sensors, countermeasures or maneuvering capabilities.

Captain Selan was getting impatient. He believed he had already given these humans enough notice. He was well within his rights to kill them outright. They were within restricted Minbari space and were caught snooping around a recent battle scene. He would have liked it very much but the religious cast would surely find his actions objectionable. He had to give them one last chance to retreat. "Fire a shot across their bow. That should get their attention," he ordered. What he had not counted on was the shields on the Federation ships. Instead of the shot passing harmlessly across the bow of the ship, it smashed right into the shields. Selan could clearly see the protective energy bubble flare as it absorbed the energy from their shot. What happened next was just as baffling. The ship that had been stationary moments ago was now accelerating at incredible speed as it maneuvered like a fighter. It was also firing back. When the first orange beam hit his ships, all hell broke loose. Wherever the beam made contact with the thick armor, it just burned right through. Crystalline armor designed to diffract beam weapons proved helpless against this orange lance of death. "Return fire, all batteries," he bellowed at the top of his voice.

Action report flooded the bridge as his fleet joined the battle. It wasn't going their way. The Va'Lath was the first casualty. The Earth ship first attacked it from long range with those nasty beam weapons followed by a pair of glowing orbs of light. He guessed it was a missile of some kind and it was traveling very fast, faster than anything he had seen before. In fact, it was too fast for unaided eyes to track and even the sensors could barely keep up with it. The first one slammed into the side of the Va'Lath and detonated eviscerating a large portion of the ship. It was followed closely by the second one that slammed, into the drive section of the ship taking out the quantum singularity drive. The resulting explosion was so violent that it lit up the whole area briefly in eerie glow. Selan however did not have time to ponder the incident. He was too busy directing the battle, trying hard not to end up like the Va'Lath.

Captain Tegath was in command of the Star of Minbar. He was a proud warrior having been involved in many battles, always the victor. When the fighting started, he was sure of the outcome but quickly realized this was no ordinary foe. True they were humans but they seemed to have acquired a new ship that was proving more than a match to their fleet of Sharlins. It was going to be a tough battle. He was concentrating all his firepower trying to bracket the incredibly fast moving ship when his ship was shaken to the core by a series of explosions. "What was that?" he yelled. "It's the other ship sir. They are firing on us." "The little fighter? Kill it," he ordered. But that was easier said than done. The capitol weapons on his ships were designed to fight larger ships not fighters. They simply could not track the small ship fast enough. His anti-fighter weapons on the other hand simply did not have the firepower. He cursed the designers for not having anticipated this as his ship was systematically taken apart.

Captain Puchenko was caught off guard by the first shot. He wasn't expecting to be shot at. Not yet anyway. But once the cards were dealt, he knew how to play the game. 'Evasive action, delta 2. Return fire at will," he barked. "Damage report Mr. Agusta."

"Shields down 17 percent sir. It was just a glancing blow"

Puchenko did not like that. They were right about the firepower analysis but what about the rest. Fortunately for him, the strange ships were not designed with speed in mind nor did they have any shields whatsoever. Phaser beams struck the unshielded flanks of the first ship gouging out deep gashes as the Gneisenau flew past the monster. They were quickly on top of the next ship, which was also raked by phaser fire followed closely by a pair of photon torpedoes. It proved to be very effective and blew away large sections of the ship putting it out of action. Suddenly, the ship jolted violently as they were bracketed by two of the enemy ships. Shields flickered for a moment as it tried to dissipate the energy. Luckily for them, it was not a prolonged burst; otherwise it would have taken down the shields. "Whoever said that speed kills had no idea what they were talking about," Puchenko chuckled throwing in a little bit of humor as the Gneisenau pulled out of the battle momentarily to give the shields time to regenerate after which it dove right back into action to support her sister ship.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Captain Koral was having a good fight. The big ships he was facing had apparently not been designed with this type of fight in mind. They were slow and proved to be easy targets while he himself was able to evade heavy counter fire. Already he had destroyed one and was working on a second when a "wormhole" opened up behind them and spilled more of the alien ships. He quickly counted them and realized there were too many to deal with. He hailed Captain Puckenko after which they retreated from the battle at warp heading for safety of the fleet.

Captain Minos of the Minbari War Cruiser Kantar was shocked when he exited hyperspace. He had received communication informing that Captain Selan's fleet was engaging some humans. He had expected it to be brief and decisive encounter. He was correct in that but to his horror; it was the Minbari who were on the wrong side of the equation. The hulks of two burnt-out Sharlins adrift in space greeted him. The remaining fleet wasn't fairing any better. "All weapons fire at will," he yelled incensed by the carnage. "Kill them." But it was easier said than done. He quickly found out that these humans were not so easy to kill. Their ships were so fast that they were evading most of the fire. Even when they did manage to hit them, contact was so brief that weapons did not have time to burn through their cursed energy shields. Suddenly, the two enemy ships pulled out of the battle and then simply seemed to vanish. It was only later that they figured out what had happened and it caused a lot of trepidation. What were these humans up to? Where did they get all these new technologies that shamed even the combined strength of 10 Sharlins? He would have to contact Ambassador Delen. He needed answers and fast.


	4. Revelations

**Chapter Four: Revelations**

Captain Payne was worried. Within a week, they had been attacked twice by two different species without any provocations. Why was everyone so aggressive? True, they had come out on top both times but just barely. The way things were going, he was sure he would start loosing people soon. It was only a matter of time. That did not sit well with him but what was he to do? He heard the turbo lift open behind him as his science officer Daniel Tagget walked onto the bridge. "Any progress?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Those were just the words he wanted to hear. He beamed at Tagget but it vanished quickly as Tagget continued, "It's concerning the latest skirmish sir."

"What about that?"

"Lieutenant Gomez was going over the sensor logs from the Gneisenau and the Udaloy when he noticed something strange. Captain Puchenko had mentioned that they had been scanned with tachyon beams. It did not make sense at the time since both the Gneisenau and the Udaloy were not cloaked. So Gomez ran a detailed analysis of the recording and found it had strange harmonics and modulations. He thought it might be a form of communication so he ran more tests which proved his theory"

"Damn! No wonder they didn't reply to our hails."

"There's more sir, Lt Gomez worked on it since the Gneisenau got back and he's finally been able to decipher it."

"Put it on screen." What he saw stunned him. Hurriedly, he called a meeting of all the captains.

There was a furor as the implications of the new findings sunk in. As the group discussed what they should do next, Captain Payne studied each Captain in turn. He'd known most of them for a long time, some even from his Starfleet Academy days. But now, he needed to know them better than ever. He had to know how each one would react to this strange new environment. He'd already seen changes in some of them. Now he wanted to know how each one felt about this situation and how they would react to it. He also wanted to know what they wanted to do. There were some who preferred the straight forward approach; head straight to Earth and meet up with their counterparts of this universe and hope things would turn out ok. Others were more cautious and wanted to take things slower. He saw merit to both sides of the argument but it was ultimately his decision to make. Normally, he would have sided with the bolder ones but in this case he chose to be cautious. The stakes were too high.

Ever since Strike Force Bravo had arrived in this new universe, the Klingon contingent had strangely taken a back seat to their Federation counterpart. This was strange because the Klingons always insisted on being involved in any decision-making regarding all joint operations. It surprised Captain Payne but he never brought it up. In fact, he was glad they were staying out of his way. That was until now. Captain Domak of the IKS Vaj Tlq and Captain TekSha of IKS ToDuj were in his ready room informing him of their decision not to join him on his journey to Earth. Instead, they would head out to what was Klingon territory in their own universe. Payne did not like their plan but he knew there was no way he could stop them short of using force. He did not want to do that. Reluctantly he authorized it, not that the Klingons would have cared.

It took the fleet ten days to make it to the Sol system. They could have gotten there faster but there was no need for the extra speed. Cruising around at top speed demanded lot more resources, something they wanted to conserve. The lack of a starbase support was already showing. The Defiant-class ships were never designed for extended deep space missions plus the repairs to the ships were not up to Starfleet spec and that bothered Payne. If he were to engage someone, he wanted his ships to be in top fighting condition. He would have to make arrangements for fleet support if they were to be stuck here for protracted amount of time; preferably a starbase of some sort.

"Sir, we will be at the edge of the Sol system in 5 minutes."

"Good, signal the fleet to drop out of warp but maintain cloak. They are to proceed to Pluto at impulse and remain in orbit until further orders."

"Yes sir."

"Commander Sato, proceed to the edge of the system and drop us out of warp, then proceed at impulse. I want to gather as much intel as possible. Jacobs, how are we with comm.?"

"Everything's in order sir. The new upgrades are working just fine. We are receiving lots of communication signal."

"Is there anything interesting going on?"

"It depends on what you mean by interesting. There are literarily thousands of channels and it will be a while before I can sort it out."

"How about military channels?"

"We have yet to isolate them sir. I'll inform you as soon as I do so."

In the meantime the Baikonur was also busy collecting other data. The system was filled with numerous ships of all shapes and sizes but what interested them the most were the military ships in orbit around Earth and Mars. There were mainly two types. Both were extremely large. The smaller one was about a thousand meter in length and must have had a mass of at least eight or nine million tons. The larger one was closer to fifteen hundred meter and must have tipped the scale at close to thirty million tons. Both were bristling with numerous weapons platforms. However, their weapons were currently powered down so the passive sensors on the Baikonur couldn't get detailed information on them. Interestingly, like all previous ships they had encountered, these ships also seemed to lack shield generators, which explained their reliance on very thick armor. Nevertheless, they still looked imposing. Something else they noticed was the presence of numerous small one-man fighters supporting these ships. Unlike the Federation, which relied mostly on capital ships, these people seemed to rely extensively on numerous fighters as force multipliers.

It took Ensign Jacobs an hour before he had isolated some interesting channels. "Sir, this one seems interesting. It's called ISN and seems to be one of their main news channels."

"Put it on screen."

ISN proved to be similar to CNN and BBC news channel. It was spewing out lots of information but what caught Payne's attention was the bit about Mars having just declared independence from Earth. The anchor kept going on about the implication of the secession and what actions President Clark would take. He also kept mentioning about a space station called Babylon 5 and how their action had started a chain of events which lead to Mars seceding from Earth Gov. Captain Payne did not like it one bit. It was just their luck to end up in the middle of a civil upheaval. He would have to take his time to find out what exactly was going on before he drew any conclusion.

President Clark's response was swift and decisive. What followed was horrific. Clark ordered his military to attack the Mars colony. Payne could only imagine how those people receiving the orders must have felt like. He would never agree to being part of something like that. True, like all military people, he had sworn to obey orders from his superiors but they had also sworn to defend his people.

The secession of Mars followed by Clark's orders to bomb Mars started a sequence of events that lead to other colonies breaking away from Earth Alliance in quick order, vowing to be independent until President Clark was impeached. Fearing this news would spread like wildfire, Clark covertly clamped down on ISN and all other news outlets, effectively suspending all freedom of speech. This did not go unnoticed.

In the meantime, the orbital bombardment of Mars proceeded with devastating results. As the domed cities were hit from above, there was massive death and destruction. Payne was surprised that so many ships had participated in it. He had been sure that more captains would refuse such an order but obviously Clark had a stronger reign on his military than he had anticipated. He wanted to step in and interfere but he knew this was not the right time. He had already aggravated two species and did not want a third. Not yet anyway. However, that did not mean he could not lend a humanitarian hand to those on the receiving end. He ordered the rest of his fleet to move in under cloak and transport the most severely injured off the planet. His combined fleet could only hold thirty thousand and the transport would take hours but that was better than nothing. When the evacuation was complete, they headed straight for Babylon 5.

The IKS Vaj Tlq and IKS To'Duj had been traveling at high warp to Qo'noS for almost two weeks now. They had passed several inhabited worlds and ships of every description but nothing was going to slow them down. They had one thing in mind and that was to get "home". They weren't sure what they were going to do once they got there. They just wanted to get there.

As they finally approached Qo'noS, neither Captain Domak nor the crew could suppress their anticipation. However, when they pulled up in orbit around Qo'noS they were surprised to see lots of ships in orbit but none had any Klingon life signs onboard. What was going on here? Where were all the Klingons? It never even crossed Domak's mind once that there might not be Klingons in this universe. Irritated, he gruffly ordered his sensor officer to scan the planet. The sensor officer nervously did what he was told and was relieved when he located some Klingon life signs. It was strange though. He could only locate several thousand at the most. Perplexed, he turned to his captain and explained what was going on. Domak immediately ordered an away team assembled. He was going to investigate this himself.

Governor Kellani wasn't a happy man. He used to be a powerful man in the Centauri Empire, but lately he had fallen from grace in the Emperors eyes. He was lucky that his father still held influence in the emperor's court and been able to pull strings otherwise his head would have ended on a pike like so many others. Instead, he had been relegated to this backwater planet that no self-respecting Centauri of his position would have ever visited. Someday he would make Mollari pay for this. He would rip the bastards beating heart out of his chest and shove it down his throat. Oh how he would love to watch the horror in Mollari's eyes. But that would have to wait. For now, he had to bid his time and make the right move when the time came. Until then, he was going to make the most of the situation.

Kellani always had had the passion for hunting big game. Thankfully, that was the one thing this planet had plenty of. Today, he was hosting some minor dignitaries and had arranged a hunt. He didn't really care for their company but if he wanted to get back at Mollari, he had to play this game and play it well. He smiled inwardly as he thought of the day he would have his revenge. It sure was a dish best served cold. Begrudgingly, he shook himself back to reality as his spotters located their quarry. He then gave the orders and the hounds were set loose to chase it down. As he followed the hounds up the hill he quickly realized that he was moving much too fast and had left his guests behind. Normally, he would have slowed down for them but the commotion up ahead told him the hounds had cornered the beasts. There was no sense in waiting for those slow bastards. Let them take their own time. He smoothly dismounted and followed the last 40 feet on foot. As he approached a clearing, he noticed that the hounds were no longer barking. That was a bit odd but he let it slide, that is until he walked out onto the clearing. Three Karvals stood in front of him with his hounds dead at their feet. He could not believe his eyes for a moment. Not only were his hounds dead, these Karvals showed absolutely no sign of fear as he approached them. It was then that he noticed the difference between the Karvals he had been hunting and these. These were fully clothed and had some kind of weapon hanging from their belt. Kellani was a man of action and he did not waste any further time analyzing the situation. He reached for his weapon and brought it up but he was too late. One of the Karvals threw his bloodied knife at him. It caught him at the base of his throat and buried itself down to the hilt. Surprised, he dropped his weapon and tried to pry the knife that was lodged in his throat. It was a futile gesture and he knew it. Already, blood from the wound was pouring down his throat and pooling in his lungs. He was drowning in his own blood. He tried to cough it out but it just made matters worse. Slowly he dropped to his knees and slumped over, gasping for a breath of air before he passed out.

Captain Domak had ordered his away team beamed down to a hillock on the outskirt of the capitol. They had detected some Klingon life-signs and he wanted to investigate it. After re-materialization, he and his team of two warriors quickly scanned the surrounding area. There were no signs of the Klingons they had come in search of. As they moved up the hill expanding their search, they were jumped by a pack of hounds that came crashing through the dense underbrush barking and snapping at their heels. Irritated more than anything else, the three Klingons drew their daqtagh and proceeded to slay the offending animals. It didn't take long. They were about to resume their search when something else stumbled through the brush. It was a medium-built human with a funny hairdo; nothing out of the ordinary really. Domak had known humans most of his life and knew they could be eccentric and impractical. But what happened next caught his attention. The human blurted something alien and swung his weapon that had been hanging from his shoulder. Being a warrior, his reflexes took over. He threw the daqtagh with all the force he could muster and watched it bury itself in the human's throat. There was a mask of horror on his victims face as it realized the gravity of the situation. It clutched the daqtagh with both hands and tried to pry it loose but it was buried too deep and would not budge. It staggered a small distance and finally crumpled to the floor.

Domak was pleased. He had always prided at his skills with a daqtagh and it did not let him down. He was a bit concerned though. Why had the human try to kill them at first sight? Were they at war? It did not quite add up. Perplexed, he walked over to the fallen body and pulled the daqtagh out and wiped it clean before sheathing it. That was when he heard more footsteps approaching. They quickly, retreated behind some cover and waited. It wasn't long before a group of humans showed up leading their mounts. When they saw the fallen body of their comrades, there was a commotion. Domak strained to catch what was being said but it sounded alien to him. Not even the universal translator was able to help. Given the situation, Domak decided that retreat was the best option at the moment. He wanted to know what was going on before he made his next move. God help these humans if they were at war with the Klingons. Although, he wasn't from this reality, he felt it was his obligation to help his brethren.


	5. Retribution

**Chapter Five: Retribution**

Ambassador Delen was in her quarters when the communiqué arrived from Minbar. It was accompanied by a short footage of the battle. The wanton destruction of Minbari ships horrified her. She was even more shocked when she saw the names of the ships boldly emblazoned across its dorsal and ventral surfaces. Although the designs were clearly alien, there was not doubt those were Earth Force ships. The bigger one looked almost fragile in comparison to a Sharlin but its looks were deceiving. In less than a minute, the two ships had decimated three Sharlins without even batting an eyelid. There was some kind of energy shield protecting both ships and not even the powerful weapons of the vaunted Sharlins were able defeat it. Had it not been for the arrival of the second fleet, Captain Selan would have lost all his ships. Not surprisingly, she was ordered to report back to Minbar immediately. This was a major catastrophe and the gray council needed her council. Hurriedly, she made her way to the command deck to meet John Sheridan.

Sheridan was busy as always wrapped up with the running of the station but when he saw Delen approaching, he dropped everything and stood up to greet her. To him she was much more than just the Minbari ambassador, so she deserved his attention. Many people frowned on such practices but he didn't give a hoot. He gave her a big smile that failed to light her up as usual. Immediately, he knew something was out of kilter. When she told him what had transpired in the Sh'lekk'tha star system, it was his turn to get floored. If Earth Force had developed ships that were more powerful than Minbari warships, it spelled big trouble for Babylon 5. There was no way for his O'Neil class space station to face ships that had utterly defeated a fleet of Sharlins. As she left, Delen promised him she would do everything in her power to help protect Babylon 5. They both knew that might not be enough.

Captain Domak wasn't sure what had just transpired. To him, it seemed like the humans of this reality were out to kill Klingons. That did not sit well with him. Angrily, he stormed onto the bridge and ordered his science officer to get him some answers. Seeing the captain so irate, the science officer quickly got down to business. He first tried scanning all communication channels but that wasn't of much help. He then had the bright idea of boarding one of the ships in orbit and tapping into their computer system. Normally he would have gotten permission from the captain before taking such a bold step, but he decided to avoid the irate captain. He summoned the communications officer who also happened to be a computer genius and transported over to the closest ship.

The two Klingon officers materialized in a dimly lit corridor of the closest ship. They quickly scanned the area and were able to verify that they were alone. After all, they had no intention of running into any of the crew and starting another incident. The captain surely would have skinned them for it. Walking down one of the long corridors, they came upon a control panel and quickly got down to business. It took quite some time before they were able to interface with the alien system. After a long and exhaustive search, they found what they were looking for.

Captain Domak slammed down the data pad. He had read the report twice and still could not come to terms with it. The fate of the Klingons of this reality totally disgusted him. Over a thousand years ago, the humanoid aliens called the Centauri had come to Qo'noS and subjugated the native Klingons who had just come into the computer age. They had resisted bravely but the overwhelming might of the Centauri Empire had crushed them in the end and they had been turned into slaves. More than a century later, under the leadership of Kahless, his people had revolted and had regained their freedom but it was a bittersweet victory. Having been humiliated by a bunch of savages, the Centauri Republic had literarily bombed Qo'noS back into the Stone Age. They did not stop at that. After the orbital bombing, they systematically slaughtered all Klingons they could find. A population of over a billion was reduced to only a few thousand. Their civilization having been so utterly decimated, the surviving Klingons were forced back into the wild. A couple of century later when the planet recovered, the Centauri returned and re-colonized it. To this date, they were the lords of Qo'noS and the Klingons were nothing more than game, hunted for pleasure.

Domak got up from his desk and strode onto the bridge. He walked in front of the view screen and ordered his comm. officer to hail the ToDuj. Captain TekSha appeared on the screen. He looked just as irate as Domak himself. No self respecting Klingon could accept such a humiliation of their brethren without being shamed himself. Something had to be done. "Captain TekSha, prepare your ship for battle. We will show the Centauri that nobody messes with Klingons." "We are ready," the reply came immediately as Domak had expected. "Qapla'," he replied. The two Vorchas then dropped cloak, raised shields and attacked the ships in orbit.

To the Centauri officer manning sensors on board the Vorchan cruiser Penan, the strange ships seemed to appear out of nowhere. He immediately raised the alarm but it was too late. Disrupter beams slammed into the thick armor of his ship with such force that not only did it tear gaping holes in the superstructure but knocked the ship completely out of orbit. As power failed throughout the ship, her crew desperately tried to revive the engines to no avail. Caught in the vice-like grip of gravity, the ship started it slow spiral into the clutches of the world below. Realizing their fate, the crew of the cruiser Penan did not wait for orders to abandon ship. They scrambled to the escape pods and left the doomed ships like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Captain TekSha did not even stop to savor his handiwork. They had already knocked out the two warships protecting the planet so he diverted his attention planet side. Any structure that could be identified as having any military importance was taken out immediately. Within half an hour, their work was done. Great patches of fire could be seen consuming large sectors of the planet. Already the atmosphere was getting darker with the dust and debris from massive explosions filling up the sky. He felt a twinge of sadness at seeing his own planet burning but he reminded himself that it was in the hands of the Centauri. If a little fire was called for to remove the vermin, then so be it. With that thought lingering in his mind, he raised cloak and slipped away into the night.

Strike force Bravo had its hands full. With over thirty thousand critically wounded filling up the nine ships, there was no time for anyone to even breathe. All the emergency medical holograms had been brought on line to aid with the medical procedures. Even then, the medical staffs were utterly overwhelmed. Anyone with an iota of medical experience was called to help them. The rest were busy ferrying the injured to and fro from the different parts of the ship where triage areas that had been setup. Only the most critically wounded could be assigned to the sick bays. Things were rapidly getting out of hand when someone came up with the bright idea of using the holodecks as a medical facility complete with holographic medical staff. They jumped on it immediately. It took the engineering team hours of frantic work to program the holodecks to Starfleet medical standards but it proved to be a godsend. It effectively doubled the medical capacity of the whole fleet. Even so, there were many that did not make it. They just did not get the medical attention in time.

When Delen got to Minbar, the Gray Council was already in the middle of a session. Tempers were running hot at having lost not only half of Captain Selan's fleet but also the base at Sh'lekk'tha system. It had only been a small military base and only several thousand lives had been lost along with the Sharlins guarding it but that was besides the point. Someone had dared to destroy it. Some believed it to be the work of the humans but others doubted it. After all, they had received messages from the base saying they were under attack by the Shadows. Others pointed out that it did not mean the humans were not working with the shadows. Even though their new ships didn't seem to have shadow technologies, they had no doubt that the shadows or one of their lackeys had helped develop it. There was simply no way the humans could have come up with something that radical.

When the time came to decide on their actions, it mainly broke down along the caste lines. The warriors were their usual hawkish self, the religious caste urged caution and the workers mainly fell in line with the warriors. Delen was one of the most vocal opponents who wanted to take time and think it through. She reminded them of the first Earth-Minbari war that had started from a misunderstanding but that only worked against her. There were many who hadn't forgotten the way it had ended and were more than happy at having gotten a second chance to finish it off. A compromise was finally reached. They would destroy one of Earths colony. Eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth.

EAS Aristaeus along with her sister ship the Efreisone and the Clymene had been on patrol around the starbase at Jericho III. Ensign Palmer was the first one to detect the jump vortex as it started to form. He immediately informed Lt. Edwards the officer on duty who hurried over to the station just in time to see a flight of three Minbari Sharlins streaming out of the vortex. They had been on patrol to keep pirates and raiders at bay and were not expecting to see Minbari warships so deep inside EA space. It was a clear violation of their sovereignty. He quickly ordered yellow alert as he dispatched the on-call fighters ahead to screen their ships. His anticipation turned to trepidation as the Minbaris followed suite. He counted them as they streamed out of the belly of the beast. "My god," he thought as he realized that the Minbaris were deploying their whole fighter contingent. He quickly ordered the rest of their fighters to launch ASAP, but he knew it was too late for that. It would take at least another ten minutes before he could get all their fighters space borne. There simply wasn't enough time. He raised the ship to red alert as he summoned the captain. He also put Starbase Jericho III on alert.

Captain McNight had been sound asleep when the red alert sounded. He quickly threw on his clothes and bolted for the bridge. Thankfully it was just down the hall. By the time he arrived on the bridge, things were getting dicey. The two sides had closed to almost weapon range. Silently he counted the forces allayed against him and calculated the odds. His force of three Omegas and accompanying fighters were facing three Minbari Sharlins and their fighter screen. He did not like the odds at all. True, Earth Force had vastly improved their warships since the last Earth-Minbari war but the gains had only been incremental. He desperately hoped the Minbari were not here to wage war. Deep down he doubted that. The only other time the Minbari had ventured this far into Earth Space was during the last war. What else could be the reason for this incursion?

The first wave of his fighters was finally within weapons range but he ordered them to hold fire unless fired upon. He didn't want a repeat of the first Earth-Minbari war. Too bad, the Minbaris had other ideas. The moment they were within range, they opened up. McNight watched in horror as the superior Nials picked out his fighters easily. Those that survived the first round of attacks made a valiant effort and succeeded in destroying a few Nials. It was too little too late. The remaining Nials made short work of finishing them off. His second flight of fighters were now getting in range but McNight made the wise decision of pulling them back where they could get fire support from the Omegas. As the Starfuries retreated, the Nials made a firing run for the Omegas. Closing to weapons range, they let loose a volley of torpedoes which streaked towards the three ships. Taking this opportunity, his fighters pounced on the Nials as their attention was momentarily diverted. This time they had better results. They brought down at least six aggressors while the fire from the Omegas brought down five more. But now that their loads had been expended, the Nials turned to face the Starfuries.

Meanwhile, the two Omegas were busy defending themselves. Facing an onslaught of torpedoes, physical and electronic counter measures flooded the space trying to decoy them away from their intended target. Next, close in weapons system opened up with a continuous barrage as they tried to bring down the missiles. Working in tandem, the countermeasures, the CIWS managed to intercept a majority of them but a few survived the gauntlet and slammed into the ships. The tough hides of the Omegas were no match for the high yield torpedoes. The first torpedo exploded just aft of the rotating section disintegrating the thick armor that protected it and reduced the compartments in the area into the devil's scrap yard. The massive energy of the blast was magnified by the confines of the area where it smashed its way deep into the heart of the ship. The second torpedo smashed into the rotating section that housed the command center, which immediately brought it to a grinding halt. However, the inertia of the massive section caused the whole ship to rotate instead. All propulsion had already been lost with the loss of the engineering section to the first torpedo and there was no way to bring the ship back on even keel; not that it would have helped much.

Meanwhile, the Efreisone and the Clymene were facing a similar firestorm. Torpedoes slammed left. Torpedoes slammed right. Torpedoes slammed everywhere. Chaos reigned supreme as the two ship withered under fire.

Taking advantage of the commotion, the Sharlins had advanced almost unnoticed. They were within weapons range and opened up with their heavy weaponry. It was too much for the wounded Omegas to bear. One by one, they detonated spectacularly taking the lives of thousand that served onboard them. Now unchallenged, the Sharlins made their way towards the human Starbase that was Jericho III.

Captain Ryan Tornillo was the Commanding Officer of Starbase Jericho III. Having worked hard all his life he was proud of his achievements. But at the moment, he wished he were somewhere else. They had just lost contact with the Aristaeus battle group and that could only mean one thing. The Minbari had broken through the line and were headed their way. Being a pragmatist, he knew there wasn't much he could do even though Jericho III was a well-defended station. Truth be told, none but the Vorlons or the Shadows could hope to stand in the way of the Minbari war machine. They had learned this the hard way. However, he was also a proud officer serving Earth Force. He wasn't going to roll over and play dead. Not for the Minbari, not for anyone else. He turned to his Executive Officer and ordered all fighters launched.

One by one, the twenty-four Starfuries defending Starbase Jericho III streamed out of their hangers and took up defensive positions. To the few veterans of the previous Earth-Minbari war, it seemed strangely reminiscent of the battle of the line. They seemed calm and composed and their faces betrayed nothing. To the rest, it was just nerve wrecking. Outwardly, they tried to project the calm like their colleagues; deep within they were racked with fear and anticipation. Fortunately, they did not have to wait long. Guns opened up as the two sides entered weapon range filling up the space with flashes like lightning that rips up a darkened monsoon sky. Pulse cannons and neutron guns targeted each other for destruction. Unfortunately for Earth Force, their aim was wildly off the mark courtesy of the Minbari stealth technology. It wasn't the same for the other side. One by one the Nials batted the EF Starfuries out of the sky.

Next in line to receive this brutal treatment was the starbase itself. It valiantly fought back the nimble fighters with dogged determination but when the Sharlins arrived, its luck had finally run out. The two-meter thick armored hull was simply no match against the fusion beams and neutron cannons of the monsters it was facing. Thousands of lives were snuffed out in an instant. Having done their jobs, the Minbari war machines silently turned around and jumped into the depths of hyperspace leaving behind a grisly scene of death and destruction.


	6. Strike Three

**Chapter Six: Strike Three**

For Captain Payne, the arrival at Babylon 5 couldn't have come any sooner. He wanted to off load his human cargo onto Babylon 5 as soon as possible but he had to be cautious. His fleet had already been attacked twice and did not want to start yet another incident. So when the fleet arrived at Babylon 5 it was under cloak. For over an hour they watched the huge station as many small ships of various sizes came and went. By now he had gotten used to the massive size of ships in this universe but something else surprised him a bit though. For a station that had just seceded from an aggressive government bent on genocide, they sure weren't very worried. Other than the two warships patrolling the area, there wasn't much in the way of defenses. Finally satisfied that he had a pretty good picture of the situation, he ordered the Baikonur to withdraw to well beyond the stations predicted sensor range and decloak. From there they proceeded at half impulse back to the station.

Commander Susan Ivanova was busy going over some maintenance report when long-range scanners picked up a medium sized vessel approaching the station at a very high speed. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have thought twice about it but given the high state of alert, she quickly ordered a flight of Starfuries to intercept it.

"We are being hailed sir."

"Put them through." She replied. She was a bit taken back when the viewer was filled with the image of a man in a strange uniform.

"This is Captain Thomas Payne of the USS Baikonur, United Federation of Planets," the man greeted her in perfect English. "To whom am I speaking?"

"I'm Commander Susan Ivanova of Babylon 5," she replied. "Please hold your current position. You will shortly be escorted in by a flight of Starfuries. Do not make any deviation in flight or it will be taken as hostile intent. Do you understand?"

"Yes we do," he replied. She motioned for the link to be terminated and called for Captain Sheridan. She had a strange feeling about this and wanted the captain on the bridge in case the shit hit the fan.

When Sheridan arrived on the bridge, the ship had already been escorted in and was parked only a few kilometers from the station. He quickly studied the ship and could see the name and registry of the ship written in plain English. He was a bit puzzled. Was this a new Earth Force ship? If so, what was it doing here? Wouldn't Clark send a warship instead of what looked like a luxury liner? "Hail them," he ordered. When communication was established, he could see an authoritative looking middle-aged man seated in the middle of a large bridge. He immediately noticed the strange uniform and the presence of aliens among the crew.

"This is Captain John Sheridan. What brings you here captain?"

"We have over 30,000 wounded on board from President Clark's Mars orbital bombing. As you can see, my ship is not capable of handling so many. I would like permission to offload them to you."

No kidding, Sheridan wanted to say but he had other questions that needed to be answered first. So instead he asked, "How were you able to get them off the planet Captain and what is this United Federation of Planet that you speak of?"

"That's a long story. Perhaps if I could come aboard, we can discuss it face to face," came the reply.

Sheridan thought it over quickly and decided there was not much more risk involved, so he answered, "I will allow that. You will be given coordinates to the shuttle bay shortly. You are to bring over only 3 people, no weapons. Is that understood?"

"Very well, captain."

The flight to the station was short and uneventful. As the shuttlecraft touched down gently, the massive hangar doors swung shut behind it and pressurization began with a loud hiss. Once complete, they were greeted by Commander Ivanova who led them to a conference room where they met Captain Sheridan.

"Captain Payne, welcome to Babylon 5." Pointing to Commander Ivanova, he carried on. "You have already met Commander Susan Ivanova, my Second in Command. And this is Michael Garibaldi. He is in charge of station security."

"Nice to meet you," Payne replied acknowledging the introduction. "This is my ships councilor John Michaels." Once pleasantries were exchanged, he carried on. "As I stated earlier, we have over 30,000 wounded refuges from Mars onboard my ship. With your permission, I would like to off load them to your care."

"Yes, you did mention that. But before I can let you do that, I have a lot of question for you. Lets start with who you represent and how you manage to save that many people from right under Clark's military."

"I guess you do deserve an answer," Payne began. "I represent the United Federation of Planets which is a coalition of various worlds working together for the good of all members." He conveniently forgot to mention that they were from a different universe. That would have to come later. "We happened to be in the area when President Clark started his genocide. Our charter forced us to step in and lend a helping hand."

The ever-suspicious Garibaldi cut him off. "You conveniently happened to be there? And Earth Force did not object to that?"

"Well, it wasn't quite as simple," Payne continued only to be cut off again.

"It never is, is it?"

Warily not wanting to reveal too much, he continued once again, "We have our ways. What matters right now is that we were able to save over 30,000 civilians and we need your help." Just then his communicator chirped and Commander Sato's voice cut in.

"Captain, there's a vortex forming just 1000 kilometers off our port bow. I've just taken the ship to yellow alert. Wait, there's ships coming out of it." Payne could hear the tension in her voice. "It's the same ships we encountered before sir."

"Go to red alert. Do not engage them yet and try hailing them."

Meanwhile, Sheridan and the others were busy trying to find out what was going on too. "Bridge, what's going on?" he asked.

"It's the Minbari sir. Ambassador Delen's ship," was the calm reply. All of a sudden it was replaced by panic. "They're arming weapons sir."

"Damn it. Patch me through," he ordered. "This is Captain Sheridan to the Minbari warship. Hold your fire! I repeat, hold your fire!"

Tense moments passed before there was a reply. "This is Captain Neta of the Minbari War Cruiser Seleen. Captain Sheridan, that is the ship that attacked us at the Sh'lekk'tha star system and destroyed several of our ships. Stand aside while we take care of it. Do not get in the way!"

"Captain Neta, I repeat. Hold your fire! That ship is Babylon 5 space and we will deal with it accordingly."

"This is Minbari matter Captain Sheridan. Stay out of it."

"Not so fast Captain Neta, is Ambassador Delen on board?"

"Yes she is."

"Then let me talk to her before you take any action." Delen was shortly on the line.

"John, what's going on? What is that ship doing here?"

"I don't know yet Delen but the captain of that ship is here with me. I'll try to find out what's going on but I need time."

"Very well! Keep him under arrest. We will come get him momentarily."

Sheridan turned back to Payne and said, "you heard her. Order your ship to power down immediately if you don't want them blown to bits."

Payne did not like this one bit. He had come here peacefully in the hope that they would be able to help him with the wounded civilians. One look at Garibaldi who was now holding some kind of a gun in his hand cemented his fear. He carefully tapped his comm. badge and ordered, "Commander Sato, beam us back."

Garibaldi was confused. What did he mean by beam us back? Then right before his eyes, the two people disappeared in a sparkle of light. For a while he was stunned. He quickly looked over at Sheridan and Ivanova. They were just as stunned as him. All he could manage was, "What the hell was that?"

As soon as Payne and his party were back onboard the Baikonour, they warped out of the system before anyone could react. To all who were watching her, she accelerated incredibly fast seemed to stretch out and then disappeared in a flash of light.


	7. The Tides of War

**Chapter Seven: The Tides of War**

Captain Montu of the Centauri Republic Primus Battle Cruiser Centernia was not in a very good mood. For the past couple of weeks someone or something had been attacking Centauri ships and starbases and then disappearing without a trace. Some speculated that it was the work of the Narn but he knew better. The Narn did not have the balls or the resources to openly attack them. But that was a moot point. Given the fact that they could not catch the raiders, his commanders had thought it was only prudent to take their frustrations out on the Narn. That's why his battle group of two Primus Battle Cruisers and three Vorchan attack cruisers were lying in wait in hyperspace near the Corran star system. This was the part of his job Captain Montu hated the most. He had already waited for 12 hours now and he was getting impatient. The wait eventually paid off. A pair of G'Quan class Heavy Cruisers showed up as predicted making their usual patrol. After all, the Narn claimed this system. With a triumphant smile, Captain Montu gave the order the jump back into normal space.

Captain G'Toll was in his ready room when the alarm sounded. He quickly dashed out to the bridge just in time to see a fleet of Centauri warships pouring out of the vortex. One look and he they were in big trouble. The gun ports on the Centauri warships were already open and they came out guns blazing. "Red alert. Take evasive maneuvers. Launch all fighters and return fire at will," he barked out a series of orders without giving it a second thought. But before he could issue any further commands the ship rocked with a series of loud explosions and he was thrown off his feet. Stunned, he quickly looked around and got back to his feet. He was glad that his command staff was still there all in one piece. "Return fire," he yelled again. Turning around to his XO, he demanded, "Damage report."

"Working on it sir," came the reply as the ship shuddered again as another series of weapons fire hit the ship. It wasn't as severe as before and he was glad for it.

"Where are my fighters? Why aren't they out there yet?" he snarled as he could see a flight of Sentri fighters making a run for his sister ship.

"They haven't gotten off yet. It's gonna be another minute before we can get them out."

"Damn it! We don't have the time," he yelled again to no one in particular. He knew it wasn't their fault. The Centauri's had caught them with their pants down around their ankles and were making them pay for it. He was temporarily distracted an officer at the sensor control yelled out, "Two more contacts just showed up sir."

"Damn it. I already have more than I can handle," he thought to himself.

"Sir, they are attacking the Centauri!" He couldn't believe his ears. He quickly turned around to verify it. Son of a gun! The two new contacts of unidentified origin were definitely attacking the Centauri and making a good show of it too. Who were they? Never mind, he had a battle to fight. Once this was over, he had to find out who they were. What was it that the humans said? An enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine. Such sweet sentiments.

Captain Montu couldn't contain his pleasure. His ships were making short work of the junk barges the Narn called warships. Already he could see flames pouring out of numerous breaches in the Narn ships. "A few more minutes and it would be all over," he thought to himself. A puzzled yelp from one of his officers distracted his train of thought.

"Two new contacts sir. Unidentified origin," before Montu could say anything the guy continued, "They are attacking the Henzo. Oh no! They just destroyed it."

Montu couldn't believe what he heard. What! How dare they attack the Centauri Republic? "Destroy them!" he snarled. As one, the remaining Centauri warships broke off their attack on the Narn and turned to face the newer, deadlier enemy. At least they tried, for this new enemy was like no other they had ever encountered. Their ships about the size of the Vorchans were incredibly fast and maneuverable. Centauri warships that had been designed to fight other lumbering behemoths were no match against the new foe. Even when their ships were hit, an invisible shield absorbed the massive energy projected at it. Captain Montu just couldn't believe what was happening. His walk in the park had just turned into a brutal hailstorm. The emperor had to be alerted of this new enemy. "Launch a probe. Inform the emperor," he yelled out. Luckily, the Centernia managed to launch the probe just in time before it went down in a hail of disrupter fire.

Captain TekSha was pleased with his latest handiwork. After several days of coming up with nothing, he had finally run into a battle between the Centauri and an unknown faction. He had observed it for a minute before he had decided to join in when it looked like the Centauri had the upper hand. As usual they did not stand a chance when he entered the fray. He had cut them down without a second thought.

"We are being hailed sir."

"Put them through," he ordered. A large spotted humanoid appeared on screen. After giving him a deep bow, the newcomer addressed him, "I am Captain G'Toll of the Narn Regime. My sincerest thanks to you sir."

He returned the bow and answered, "I am Captain TekSha of the Klingon Empire. You have no need to thank us. The Centauri are our enemy."

"Then that makes us friends, no? As the humans say, an enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine."

TekSha let of a hearty roar, "You are right my friend. Come, we will drink blood wine together."

G'Toll did not know what blood wine was but he did not care. He would drink anything to make a new ally, especially one as powerful as this. He smiled and replied, "We shall my friend."


	8. Complications

**Chapter Eight: Complications **

Governor David Wilber tried to open his eyes but it hurt too much. The lights were too bright so closed it shut again. The then tried to collect his thoughts. The last thing he remembered was taking cover under his desk as the building around him started to collapse under the constant barrage from orbit. He hadn't taken Clark's threat seriously when he had threatened to level the Mars Colony. No one had. Only a mad man would undertake genocide on such a grand scale. No one had realized what a mad man Clark really was. He lay still for a couple more minutes and slowly tried opening his eyes again. His vision was blurry but he could make out the clean antiseptic lines of the room. Where was he? He tried turning his head to the side but it hurt too much so he lay still trying to compose himself. The effort had taxed him too much. He fell back asleep.

When he woke up again, he felt a lot better. He wasn't sure how long he had been out but he felt rested. He slowly tried to refocus his senses and that was when he realized someone was hovering over him. He tried to speak up but he could only get out a hoarse croak. It caught the person's attention.

"Ah… I see that you are awake. Please try not to talk for a while. Your throat should be dry. Let me give you something for it first." With that the bald man walked away. When he came back he dropped something in his throat, which had a soothing sensation. It moistened his mouth. He tried speaking and the hoarseness was gone. "Where am I? Who are you?" he questioned.

The man mumbled something under his breath then replied, "Always the same question. I am the EMH."

"EMH?"

"Yes, the Emergency Medical Hologram."

"You mean you are not real?"

"That is correct."

Wilber did not know what to say to that so he asked the same question again. "Where am I?"

"You are on board the USS Baikonur, a Federation Starship."

He was at a loss of words again. "What Federation?" He muttered.

The man, err… hologram seemed annoyed with his questions. "So many question. You will have to wait for your answers. For now, I recommend you get some more rest." With that he walked away leaving Wilber to his thoughts. Somewhere along the line, he drifted off again.

Payne was not happy with the way things had unfolded at Babylon 5. Upon reflection, he wasn't sure if he did the right thing. Maybe he should have tried to explain their first encounter to the Minbari. But then again, they hadn't given him much of a choice. Just like during the first encounter, the Minbari were way too aggressive and the station personnel were more than willing to do their bidding. He didn't like being pushed around. Wearily he made his way to the briefing room. When he got there, most of the senior staff was already seated around the table and the other ships were conferenced in. His staff rose to acknowledge his presence and took their seats after him. "Gentlemen," he began. "We seem to be in a predicament. Every race we have encountered so far has been hostile towards us. Our best chance had been Earth but that too turned out to be rotten." He paused and then carried on, "I could use some suggestion here, people."

"Well, we can always bid our time and see what happens next," Captain Puchenko offered.

"That's a good idea, but let's not forget that we have our ship filled to the brim with refugees. They are calm for now but I don't know how much longer that situation will last," Captain Narayan countered.

"Yes, especially on our ships. They were never designed with this in mind," Captain Ahmed added.

"Agreed. We need to find someone willing to take them off our hands," Payne summed it up. "Question is who are we going to turn to?"

"How about we ask our guests? After all, they know this area better than anyone of us." Everyone turned to Commander Sato who had come up with the idea so she continued, "There has to be someone with situational awareness among those we rescued."

"Well then everyone, lets get to it," with that Payne adjourned the meeting.

The third time Governor Wilber woke up, he felt much better. He was a bit surprised at the rapid rate of recovery but he reminded himself that he did not know how much time had actually passed. He should ask the good doctor he told himself. Slowly he scanned the room to see if there was anybody around. There was no one in sight other than the other patients lying on what looked like raised platforms. He then tried to get up and with a little effort was able to sit upright. He waited a bit to gather his strength and then swung his leg around to get off the bed. He felt a bit woozy but fine otherwise. The voice from behind him nearly made him jump out of the bed. It was only the doctor. "I see that my patient is doing better," he said checking his pupils for reaction. "How do you feel?"

"A bit woozy but otherwise fine." The doctor then reached for a small device and pressed it against his neck. There was a hissing sound and he felt a tingling sensation. Amazing, he started to feel much better immediately. "There! How's that?" the doctor asked.

"Much better," he replied. Now that he was feeling much better, his mind started to run a mile minute. He had so many questions he wanted answered. So he fired away at the doctor with a rapid volley of questions. The doctor answered some but refused to answer the rest stating that it was for operational security reasons. He felt exasperated. "I want to talk to your captain," he adamantly told the doctor.

"You and a thousand others. Sorry, but that'll have to wait. The Captain it too busy at the moment."

"You don't understand doctor. My name is David Wilber. I'm the Governor of the New Brussels," he replied to the doctor's sarcastic reply. That caught the doctor's attention. With a quick "Excuse me" he left the area. When he came back, he had a posse with him. One of them was a tall middle-aged man. "I'm Captain Thomas Payne and this is commander Sato," he started. "The doctor tells me that you are the Governor of New Brussels."

"Yes," he replied offering his hand. "David Wilber."

The Captain shook it firmly. "So how are you feeling Governor? I heard that you took quite a bit of bruising." That was an understatement if he ever heard one. According to the doctor, he had broken his spine, torn the ligaments on his left leg, broken the other, and ruptured his liver, just to name a few things. How they managed to patch him up so well was a wonder to him. The fact that he was feeling almost as good as new was an even bigger surprise. He remembered the last time he had fractured his leg, it had taken a whole month in a cast before it had healed.

"Can't complain. You have a good doctor here," he replied.

"Yes we do." He then turned to the doctor and asked, "Doctor, is your patient well enough to leave the sick bay?"

"Yes he is. I would like him to come back tomorrow for a follow up though," the doctor replied.

"Well then Governor Wilber, Commander Sato will escort you to your quarters for now. Would you care to join us for dinner later, say at nineteen hundred hour?"

"I'd be delighted Captain, I do have a lot of question for you."

"All in good time Governor," Payne replied with a polite smile. "Now if you will excuse me, I have work that needs my attention." He then shook Wilber's hand and walked away.

Commander Sato then led Governor Wilber to his new quarters. It was spacious and luxurious; almost as nice as some 5 star hotels he'd stayed at, very impressive. He had tried to engage the Commander on the way to his quarters but could only get vague answers. There must be something they were trying to hide. The lack of information frustrated him. He was used to being on top of things. Well, there was the dinner with the Captain; maybe he'd get some answers there. But first, he needed a shower and a shave. He entered the stall that the commander had pointed out to him but he couldn't find the damn shower. Frustrated, he walked back out to his room and stared out the large windows and watched the stars streak by. He wondered how fast they were traveling. After a while, he got tired of it so he went to the bed and lay down. Somewhere along the line, he dozed off again.

The incident with the "Federation" puzzled Sheridan. It did not make sense at all. First, they show up claiming they had rescued people from Mars. Then it turns out that they had actually attacked the Minbari and survived. Correction; make that destroyed three Sharlins and badly damaged the remaining two. Finally, they turn tail and flee at the arrival of a single Sharlin. It wasn't the fleeing part that bothered him but the way they had done it. He could somewhat understand the teleportation bit, after all there was word that the Vree had similar technology, but what about that ship? The only explanation was that they had accelerated past the speed of light. But that was impossible. Everyone knew that. Nothing could travel faster than the speed of light in normal space. Besides the acceleration alone would kill everyone onboard. Unbelievable. He hoped Delen had answers.

When Delen finally arrived, she was in a bad mood. She had been worried about the recent action her people had taken against Earth Force but now this incident trumped all else. Somehow Earth Force had managed to develop multiple ships that were incredibly deadly and were bristling with technologies that they hadn't encountered before. She was hoping Sheridan knew more about it. "John, what was that ship doing out there? Where did it go?"

The look on his face told her that he didn't have the answers she was looking for. "I was hoping you knew more about it," he replied.

"I only know that they destroyed Selan's fleet. According to the report, there were two ships that were very similar to the one that was parked outside. Why were they here?"

"They claimed to have had wounded refugees from Mars and wanted to transfer them over to us."

"That's a lie if I ever heard one. Most probably, they had a battalion of Marines ready to storm the station," Delen stated with absolute conviction. "Never mind, lets go talk to that Captain and we will get to the bottom of this."

"That's not possible," Sheridan answered. "I don't have them."

"What? Didn't you tell me that you had them in your custody?"

"Yes I did but they're gone now."

"Gone? How? We didn't see anything leave the station."

"Have you heard of the Vree transporter technology?"

"Yes… What has that got to do with this?"

"Well, they seemed to have something very similar."

"So they're working with the Vree."

"We don't know that. From what I could tell, I don't think the Vree had anything to do with it."

Delen just gave him a cold look, "We'll see about that."

Lieutenant Tingley arrived at Governor Wilbur's quarter at eighteen hundred fifty hours. Dinner with the Captain was at nineteen hundred hours so that would give him enough time to escort the Governor to dinner. He rang the doorbell several times but there was no response. "Computer, locate the governor," he instructed the computer. "The governor is in his quarters," the female voice of the computer answered his question. He was puzzled. Why wasn't the governor answering the door? He tried the bell several more times, then decided to inform the officer on duty. "Lieutenant Tingley to Lieutenant Commander Joseph."

"Joseph here."

"Sir, Governor Wilbur is not answering his door. Permission to enter his quarter."

"Granted."

"Thank you sir," he replied. He then instructed the computer to open the door and entered the room. It was dimly light so he instructed the computer to turn up the lights. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He then made his way into the bedroom section of the quarter where he immediately noticed the governor on the bed. He cleared his throat to get his attention but it was not successful so he walked over to the bed where he immediately noticed something was wrong. He reached for the governor and quickly noticed the shallow breathing and extreme high temperature. Without a second thought, he called sickbay. "Lieutenant Tingley to sickbay. There's something wrong with the Governor. I need him beamed over to he sickbay immediately." Moments later, the Governor Wilbur was whisked away to the sick bay.

Dr Tellar was on duty when the governor was beamed over to the sickbay. He quickly started the diagnostic routines. High body temperature, swollen lymph nodes, fluid in the lungs, shallow breathing… all pointing to one thing; a viral infection. He would have to get him to the lab to conduct further tests. With the help of Nurse Shelly he got his patient into the lab. The diagnostic didn't take long. The prognosis was surprising, so he called the captain.

Captain Payne didn't take long to get down to the sickbay. What the doctor told him changed everything. According to the doctor, the governor had come down with the Hodgkin's fever. Everyone under his command was vaccinated for it. In fact, every human child in the Federation was vaccinated for it at birth. But that left the humans from this universe open to infection as seen by the case with the governor. "How much time do we have before we have more people coming down with the disease?" he asked.

"Not much longer, the gestation period for the virus is anywhere from three to ten days. Most of the refugees will be coming down with it if we do not vaccinate them quickly."

"How long will that take?"

"At least 24 hours."

"You better get on it then, doc. By the way, how did they catch it?"

"From us," he replied as he walked away. He had a lot on his plate.

A dark sinister ship shimmered into view near the Sh'lekk'tha star system. Its black oily skin reflected the faint light in a dazzling yet ominous pattern. Some would even venture to call it beautiful was it not for the evil essence oozing from within the ship. It just hung motionless for sometime, and then glided towards the rubble-strewn patch of space. It was looking for something. Its sister ship had been dispatched to probe the children of their hated opponent; the Vorlons. Surprisingly it had not reported back so she had been sent to investigate. At first, every thing seemed normal. There were numerous wreckages of alien vessels floating by serenely. That was nothing out of the ordinary for her. Finally she came upon the mangled and gutted remains of her sister ship. This on the other hand was totally unexpected. All those years serving her masters and she had never encountered such devastation on one of her own kind. She started to get angry… very angry. Who dared do this to one of her own? She would find out and make them pay. But before that, she had to report back to her masters. Heaven help those poor souls, not that she believed in such nonsense. With cold rage surging through her, she faded back into the night leaving no trace of her presence at all.

Captain Payne was in his ready room when they received the distress call so he quickly made his way to the bridge. "What's going on?" he asked the ensign at the comm. station.

"Sir, we just got a distress call from a ship called the Deral, Ventuki Conglomerate. They claim that they are being attacked by the Minbari and are quickly loosing life support."

"You got to be kidding me. What's with those boneheads?"

"What's your order sir?" Commander Sato asked.

"How far are they?"

"Five minutes at warp nine."

"Alright, tell the fleet to follow us in but remain cloaked until I say otherwise. Ensign Tellar, drop cloak and take us in, warp nine."

Captain Minos of the Minbari War Cruiser Kantar was feeling much better. His recent run in with the new human ships had left a foul taste in his mouth but this was somewhat making up for it. The Vree had decided to help the humans so it was up to him to make them see the error of their ways. Along with the War Cruiser Strella, they were systematically taking apart the lone Vree Saucer. He was in no hurry to destroy it. In fact, he was just toying with it. The longer he took to destroy this ship, the more likely it was that someone would come to their aid. He just hoped it would be the new human ships. He had a nasty little surprise waiting for them.

He did not have to wait long. A single ship flashed into view as it decelerated rapidly, vectoring in on an intercept course. He was glad that they were so predictable. He would really enjoy putting an end to this abomination.

Soon they were being hailed. A middle-aged human appeared on screen and gave him an ultimatum. He just ignored it and signaled for his plan to be executed. Suddenly, nine Sharlins exited hyperspace and surrounded the lone human ship. Only then did he answer the hail. "Human," he started, "Power down your ship and be ready to be boarded. Make any false move and I will destroy you." The human captain was not amused. "I think it is you who needs to back off," he shot right back. Minos was taken aback. This one sure was cocky. "In case you haven't noticed, you're completely surrounded and outgunned." The man just leaned back and said something to another. He then replied with a smirk, "Captain, I suggest you take a look around." Minos didn't understand what he meant but his sensor officer did. As if by magic, they were suddenly surrounded by seven more human ships. The tables had suddenly turned. It took a little longer for Minos to understand that he had walked straight into their trap. He was mad and wanted to strike out but he knew if he did that, he and his fleet would be completely decimated. His pride would have to take a back seat. Reluctantly he signaled his fleet to withdraw.


	9. The Gathering Storm

**Chapter Nine: The Gathering Storm**

President Clark was furious. He had just heard about the loss of Starbase Jericho III with all its hands. It was a big setback for Earth Force. Jericho III had been an important research facility actively working on the next generation of weapons technology. That's why it had been well defended. No less than three Omegas had been permanently assigned to protect it. On retrospect, he should not have authorized such important work to a station so far from Earth. No, he had to listen to those fools that called themselves military experts. "This is the perfect location for top secret research facility," they said. "It's far from prying eyes yet deep inside Earth territory and will be easy to defend." So much for their perfect location. It was now nothing more that space junk, not worth a damn. But hey, all was not lost. When life gave him lemons, he was going to make lemonade. For a long time, he had been fighting hard to convince people about the danger aliens posed to the freedom and survival of mankind but no one had listened. This was going to change things. Soon, he would be going live on television to let humanity know that aliens were not to be trusted. Not now, not ever.

The light on top of the camera started flashing red. He was on live. "My fellow citizens," he began, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I have just been informed that Starbase Jericho III, along with three ships assigned to defend it have been lost with all hands. That's over five thousand brave men and women." He paused for effect and continued, "The perpetrators of this unspeakable action were no other than the Minbari. As you all know I have lately been accused of being paranoid and over zealous about protecting humanity but as this incident shows, I wasn't wrong about it. We live in dangerous times my friend. We live in a hostile environment, so we must take any and all actions to protect ourselves from those who want to harm us…"

Ambassador Londo Mollari was hurrying along on his way to confront Captain Sheridan when he literarily ran into G'Kar. He had a deep contempt for all Narn but G'Kar was by far the worst. He had that smugness about him that Mollari wanted to crush out but the thin veneer of civility prevented him from taking any action, at least for the moment anyway. He halfheartedly acknowledged the Narn ambassador and continued on his way. At first he did not notice it but he soon realized that G'Kar was following him. He turned to confront him but the Narn just walked past him without even breaking a step. "Damn!" he had allowed himself to be made a fool by that stupid Neanderthal. Why did he even bother to acknowledge his presence? If he had it his way, they would soon be back where they belonged, the slave camps.

He soon arrived at Sheridan's office and wasn't surprised that G'Kar was already there. He cleared his throat as he entered the office catching both their attention. Captain Sheridan looked up and said, "Ah, ambassador Mollari, what can I do for you?"

"Captain Sheridan, I came to ask you why you have not informed me about the incident with this new Earth Force ship today? I am the ambassador of the Centauri Republic and deserve to be kept appraised of all important events that happen here, no?"

"You and everyone else ambassador. I was just explaining that to ambassador G'Kar here."

Mollari just brushed that comment aside and continued, "So what did President Clark want Captain?"

"What makes you think he wanted anything?"

"Now, now captain, everyone knows that wasn't just a friendly visit."

"He's right Captain. My government demands that you reveal everything," G'Kar cut in.

Neither Captain Sheridan nor Ambassador Mollari liked that one bit. The Narn were getting too full of themselves. "Gentlemen, you will get the information when I deem it necessary. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do." With that, Sheridan showed them to the door. This did not surprise Mollari at all. In fact, he would have done exactly the same if he had been in Sheridan's place. Never the less, he needed more information. He also needed to inform Centauri Prime. The Emperor did not like being kept in the dark.

Not five minutes after the two ambassadors left, Ivanova burst into his office. She clearly was flustered. "Did you catch Clark on the television?" she asked him.

"No, what's going on?"

"Turn on the vid-screen," she replied. He flipped through the channels until he got to one of the channels that was playing back the highlights of the speech. He watched it till two anchors came on and started discussing the speech with a third so called 'expert'. Sheridan was no longer interested in it. He stormed out of his office and headed straight to Delen's quarters. How could she not have told him about it?

When he got there, she wasn't in and that only made him madder. Where the hell was she? Frustrated, he made his way back to his office. He was surprised to see that Delen was waiting for him there.

"I know you want to talk to me about Clark's speech," she began.

"You think?" Sheridan cut her off. "What were you guys thinking? You've just given the mad man free reign to do whatever he wants. Its like pouring gasoline over a fire."

Delen knew he was right but she had been overruled. "I tried to stop them but they wouldn't listen."

That was not enough for Sheridan. "And when were you going to tell me about this?"

"I couldn't. It was classified under military affairs."

"Great!" He simply didn't know what more to say so he walked out of the room. He didn't make it far before Ivanova intercepted him. She had more bad news.

"I just got word that Clark has a fleet of thirty ship headed this way."

Things were getting worse by the minute. "How long before they get here?"

"Two days, tops."

"Great! Just freaking great. Get the senior staff into the briefing room ASAP."

"Yes Sir," with that she walked away leaving Sheridan to ponder his next move.

G'Toll couldn't remember the last time he was as happy as this. The alliance with the Klingons was proving to be very fruitful. After the hangover from the blood wine had passed, both their crew had gotten down to the business at hand. Not surprisingly, it turned out that the Klingons possessed extremely advanced technology and were more than willing to share their knowledge with him. In fact, the technology was so much more advanced and different that it would take years to fully grasp it. But that was ok. Their engineers were more than happy to upgrade his ships for him. They had already installed a cloaking device that allowed his ship to completely disappear from almost all sensors and were currently working on upgrading his own sensors. He was sure that not even the vaunted Minbari stealth field would be able to fool it once completed. A few more days and he would also have a couple of disrupters replace the particle lasers that they now employed. While it wouldn't be as powerful as the ones on the Klingon ships, it was substantially more powerful than what he currently had. As for the rest of the upgrades, it would have to wait till they got to a proper facility. For now, he just couldn't wait to test this puppy out. What should he use it against? He knew the Centauri had a deep space station not too far from here. Maybe that's what he should destroy. Yes, that's what he would destroy.


	10. The Empire Strikes Back

**Chapter Ten: The Empire Strikes Back**

Captain Payne studied the strange craft in front of him. It was vaguely reminiscent of the alien space ships of old science fictions movies. What were they called? Ah, UFOs. That was it was. Nevertheless it had proven itself to be quite a sturdy ship. After the brief exchange with the two Minbari Sharlins, it was a little worse for the wear but otherwise was still space worthy from what he could tell.

"Hail them," he ordered ensign Peters. When communication was established, he was in for more surprise. Not only did the ship resemble UFOs, but the crew could have been casts from those old movies. "I am captain Thomas Payne of the Federation ship USS Baikonur."

"Captain Payne, I am Commander Xilin of the Ventuki Conglomerate ship Xon. Thank you very much for helping us. I don't know why the Minbari attacked us. We have given them no cause to behave in that manner."

"Commander Xilin, I don't know what your provocation was but they seem to be a bit too aggressive."

"When you are the lone super power, you don't need much of a reason. You of all should know that. They almost wiped you out not long ago."

"Almost wiped us out?"

"Yes, during Earth-Minbari war."

That was news to Payne. Why had the Minbari almost wiped out humanity? He would have to find that out. "Ah yes, the Earth-Minbari war." Everyone seemed to think they were related to Earth, which wasn't a surprise since most of their crew were humans. "Commander Xilin, do you need any assistance with your wounded?"

"Thank you for your offer Captain but we are fine. However, I don't think it is a wise decision to stay around here for long. You never know what the Minbari will do next."

"I agree. Please give me a moment and I will get back to you." Payne could see an opportunity in the making here. The Vree captain was indebted to him. Maybe they could off-load the Mars survivor onto the Vree who could take them back to Babylon 5 or provide them with passage where ever they wanted. At least it was worth a try. He quickly conferenced the other Captains who were more than supportive of the idea. The burden of the refugees was proving too much even for the most tolerant.

"Commander Xilin, I have a favor to ask you," Payne began as he reestablished contact with the Vree ship. "I have onboard over thirty thousand refugees from Mars. Could we make some kind of arrangement to hand them to you? Perhaps you could arrange for their passage to Babylon 5 or wherever they desire."

"I would be more than happy to accommodate your request Captain but there is no way my ship can accommodate that many people." He thought for a while then continued. "We do have a colony not far from here though. If you would follow us there, we can arrange to have the refugees shipped where ever they desire."

"Thank you, that would be fabulous."

"One question though captain. How come you are not dropping them off yourself?"

"That's a complicated one. Perhaps when the time is right, I can tell you all about it."

Lord Revak, High Admiral of the Royal Centauri Navy, read the fleet status report for the fifth time. Every one of the eighty ships assigned to his fleet was in position and ready to drop unto the unsuspecting Narn home world. He wouldn't have accepted anything less from the Imperial Navy ships under his command. All he needed now was the final authorization from the emperor himself and the long delayed subjugation of Narn could begin. As far as he was concerned, this invasion should have taken place at least a year ago but those old fools in the admiralty had constantly delayed it. "We don't have enough ships and the troops aren't ready yet," they said. Right! all he needed was a dozen ships and crew to man them and he would have all Narn on their knees within a week. Too bad, he wasn't in charge of these things. He was a military man through and through and missed the golden days of the once mighty Centauri Republic. With any luck, he would be the spearhead that would bring the good old days back to the Republic.

His rumination was cut short by a tech. "Lord Geeri is on the line sir," he was told.

"Put him through," he ordered.

"Lord Revak, the Emperor sends his command. You are to commence actions against the Narn immediately," he spat the word Narn out with venom. "Make us proud."

"Consider it done, Lord Geeri, Narn will be burning before the day is out." With that, he sent out the order to the fleet. "Commence jump on my mark. Now!"

The Centauri invasion force dropped out of hyperspace not far from the Narn home world. By the looks of things, they had the element of surprise completely on their side. Only a handful of G'Quan class Heavy Cruisers and numerous smaller crafts were patrolling in the vicinity, far too few to by of any serious consequence. Although the G'Quans looked impressive, Revak knew they were no match against his ships. Once all his ships had successfully exited hyperspace, they quickly split up into three elements. The first one with thirty ships would engage any enemy ships that were present in the area. The second element consisting of another thirty ships would form the spearhead attacking the planet while the final twenty would be held back for reinforcement if it were called for. He seriously doubted he was going to need it but his years of military service had taught him the value of reinforcement and the need to anticipate the unexpected.

Captain Semat was in charge of the first element of the Centauri attack fleet. As his ships pursued their quarry, he could see that the Narn were no fool. Instead of the individual ships rushing headlong to intercept his ships, they were wisely retreating to a rally point. In a way, he was happy to see this, if the Narn ships had charged individually, they would have lasted no more than a couple of minutes at the most. His wing of thirty Primus, Vorchans and their fighter complement would have made short work of them. In the end, it really wouldn't make much of a difference but it would at least give him the pleasure of a good fight instead of a rout. There was no fun in that. However, something unexpected happened next, instead of the regrouped Narn fleet facing to meet his wing, they turned away and slipped into hyperspace. Those cowards. They had robbed him off of a good fight and the satisfaction that went along with killing them. Bitterly, he consulted Lord Revak who ordered him to reinforce the second element.

As the combined first and second element of the Centauri fleet approached Narn, the longer-ranged planetary defenses opened up. It was a savage barrage that lit up the space, filling it with immense quantities of raw energies. They had to knock out the invaders before they could unleash their own fiery hell. Although the fireworks looked spectacular, in truth, it was doing little damage. The Centauri warships were shooting down most of the missiles aimed at them. The few that made it through did manage to do hit the heavily armored ships but it was nothing like what the Centauri had in store for the Narn. From his bridge, Captain Semat monitored the situation even as another near miss rocked his ship. He counted the seconds until they were finally in range and returned fired. It was massive and indiscriminant. The defenders tried valiantly to resist incoming fire but the sheer volume was proving to be overpowering. Defeat seemed inevitable. Just then Semat's ship rocked violently and was thrown off course. "What the hell was that?" he demanded. It was the Narn fleet that had retreated to hyperspace not too long ago. Instead of fleeing the fight, they had just executed the classical hammer and anvil maneuver. His ships were caught in a deadly crossfire and were paying the price. He lost seven ships in just a matter of minutes. "Get me Lord Revak on the line," he bellowed. He was going to need the twenty ships Lord Revak had held back as reinforcement.

G'Tesh was in charge of home defense. With only a dozen ships under his command, it was a tall order. The Centauri invasion had taken everyone by complete surprise. They hadn't gotten even a single word from their spy network at all. The task before him seemed monumental but he wasn't going to let it rattle him. The very survival of his people depended upon his success. As the Centauri commander split up his group, he quickly knew what he must do. He ordered all his ships to fall back to his position ASAP. Then, instead of making a stand he slipped into hyperspace leaving an impression of retreat. In fact, it was just a cunning plan no one would have expected. Once the Centauri fleet had committed to attacking the planet, he would drop out of hyperspace right on their tail and catch them in crossfire. Sure, it was a risky plan. Such a precision jump so close to a planet always would be, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Besides who else but the Narn knew this area better.

G'Tesh's fleet executed the maneuver flawlessly catching the Centauri off guard. He made maximum use of it. Even before they could react, his ships had blasted of three Centauri Primus Battle Cruisers that were desperately trying to evade the fire. They kept blasting away at the Centauri until they had finished turning around to face him. He then executed step two of his plan, which was just as daring and innovative as the first. His ships closed rank and made a headlong rush straight into the heart of the enemy fleet. It was a bold gamble rushing into the heart of the enemy formation. Many of his smaller ships paid the ultimate price but the move had the desired effect. The Centauri ships in the path scattered out of the way making them easy target for his well disciplined ships. On top of that, the Centauri ships closest to them shielded them from the rest of the Centauri fleet. Once past the line of ships, they made a sharp left turn bringing them line-abreast of the left half of the Centauri fleet leaving the right half rushing to catch up with them. Now, they only had half the ships to deal with which was still a three to one odd. Meanwhile, the planetary defense was still putting up a stiff barrage albeit with more caution. They had to avoid hitting their own ships. This proved to be a godsend as it kept the Centauri busy on two fronts. Unfortunately, the odds were catching up to him. He made one brilliant move after another but in the end there just was no way for his small fleet to stop the overwhelming Centauri assault. He died a warrior's death a blast from a Vorchan's ion cannon tore into his ship. Without his leadership, the remaining Narn fleet fell into disarray and was quickly dispatched by the Centauri fleet.

Captain G'Toll was watching the view screen in awe as his ship sped off towards the Centauri Deep Space Station. They weren't in hyperspace. In fact, his ship was being towed behind one of the two Klingon ships that were traveling FTL in normal space. This was totally unheard of but here he was doing exactly that. He just hoped the Klingons would share this technology with them. He saw no reason for them not to. From what he could make out, the speeds were comparable to travel in hyperspace but infinitely more flexible. Gone were the days when you needed hyperspace beacons and jump gates. You could just warp in and out of any location. He could only dream of the tactical potential of such a drive system. Imagine outrunning a torpedo or even a neutron cannon beam. He would love to see the looks on the Centauri faces when his ships fully armed with Klingon technology laid waste to Centauri Prime itself. Now that would be such sweet revenge. "There's a priority message from Narn for all ships sir," the comm. officer reported breaking his train of thoughts

"On screen!" he ordered. He couldn't believe what he heard. The Centauri had attacked Narn with over eighty ships and their home defense was falling apart. All ships were to return to Narn immediately. He quickly informed the Klingons what had transpired. The Deep Space Station would have to wait and his ship would have its trail by fire in its own backyard. He only hoped it was not too late.


	11. Retaliation

**Chapter Eleven: Retaliation**

General Braddock sat in his ready room as he contemplated his mission of subjugating Babylon 5 and the renegades who had dared to secede from Earth Government at a sensitive time like this. To him, this was the pinnacle of back stabbing and he despised the people responsible for it. In his opinion, President Clark should have taken this action much sooner. He wasn't exactly a fan of the president but his policies ran along the same line as his own. He went over his plan one more time. Nothing was going to go wrong on his watch. He believed in the Powell doctrine and had insisted on an overwhelming show of force and the president had agreed. Even though they had to scrounge all available ships to make up his task force, even the old Olympus corvette and Hyperion heavy cruisers, he was quite happy with it. There was just no way for a single O'Neil class station to challenge his armada.

The last ten hours had been a flurry of activities preparing the station in anticipation of the coming battle. Sheridan had resigned himself to that. Clark was determined to bring the station back under his control and there was no stopping him. The fifty ships headed their way made that point clear. How in the hell did Clark manage to get that many ships on such a short notice? Granted he was not privy to the current state of the Earth Force but last time he checked, capital ships were in short supply. Well, wherever Clark got his ships, the fact was that he would soon be facing a massive onslaught. Babylon 5 was well armed but would never be able to face such overwhelming odds even with the support of the two "rebel" ships now stationed outside. Sure Delen had promised help but there was no way the Minbari ships would arrive on time. Even the ship she had arrived on had left after dropping her and might not make it back on time, that is if Delen could convince her people to support Babylon 5. The situation looked dire but all was not lost yet. He still had an ace up his sleeve. "Commander, get me a shuttle. I have a trip to make."

"Sure, where you going?"

"I'll tell you when I get back."

Susan was surprised. This was no time to be taking trips. Clark's force was on its way and would be on top of them anytime. "Alright, I'll get on it immediately," she replied as she walked away.

"Commander, could you also get Dr Franklin out here. I've been feeling queasy all morning. Must be something I ate."

"Yes sir," she replied without breaking a step. Actually, she was also feeling a bit under the weather. Must be some kind of bug going around.

G'Toll and the two Klingon warships surveyed the devastated scene around Narn from warp. There were several dozen Centauri warship in orbit amongst numerous hulks of burnt out warships, both Centauri and Narn alike. From the looks of it, the home defense fleet had put up a valiant fight but had been crushed never the less. As for the planet itself, it was a smoking ruin. The once beautiful planet was a hollow shell of its former self. Black smoked bellowed from fires that were still raging planet wide. It was slowly obscuring the whole planet as the black smoke swept across the globe riding the jet streams. It would take months for it to clear up once the fires had died out. Life on the planet was no doubt in serious jeopardy if not already dead. The enraged G'Toll ordered an immediate counter attack on the Centauri. The two cool headed Klingon captains knew better than that but did not want to get in his way. After all, they would have felt the same if it had been their planet that had been so brutally raped. The trio of warships dropped out of warp and immediately started a high speed attack run on the blockading ships which took them by complete surprise. Several Primus and Vorchans were completely shot up even before the rest of the ships realized what had happened. Hurriedly they turned to face the new opponents who had already finished their initial run and were making a second pass. This time, the Centauris were a bit more prepared and returned fire. While the new systems installed by the Klingons gave G'Toll an edge over a single Centauri ships, it did not help much when pitted against several dozen opposing ships. Even the Klingons who had far superior weaponry were feeling the pain. Their ships were a lot faster than his but they had to slow down to keep in formation with him and to provide fire support. Even then a lot of weapons fire found their mark. "Thank god, the Klingons are intercepting all the torpedoes," G'Toll thought to himself. No sooner had he said that a single torpedo made it past the defenses and slammed into the side of his ship. There was a loud crashing noise but nothing more. He let out a sigh of relief. It was a dud. Unfortunately for the people manning pulse canon number five, it was a different story. The dud torpedo slammed into the gun placement with such force that it completely knocked the gun off its emplacement and although the thick armor prevented the missile from tearing into the hull, there was localized catastrophic damage. The kinetic energy of the torpedo slamming into the armor had an effect similar to the High Explosive Squash Head round used by British tanks in the twenty-first century. All the kinetic energy of the torpedo transferred into the armor which propagated it to the inside where it shattered the inside wall into thousands of tiny shrapnel. Not a single soul manning the pulse cannon number five survived. Furthermore, the shrapnel cut into several power lines and high energy plasma conduits which immediately started a raging fire in the confines. It quickly spread to the neighboring compartments. Firefighting teams broke into action trying to contain the fire from spreading any further but it was a futile gesture. RiTal was busy directing the firefighting efforts when an officer ran in and ordered him to seal the hatches to the next compartment.

"I have men in there fighting the fire. I can't leave them in there," he yelled back. The officer was clearly enraged.

"Damn it," he cursed as he whipped out his sidearm and yelled back. "You will close that hatch," Just then, his team of blackened and burnt firefighters stumbled out of the fiery compartment, clearly having given up the fight. With a sigh of relief he quickly slammed the hatch shut and kept the fire contained at least for the moment.

Captain TekSha did not like this turn of events at all. With the slower Narn ships in formation, his two ships had to reduce their own speed to protect the straggler. A part of him told him to leave the Narn to fend for itself. But the other half reminded him that if he left the Narn alone, it wouldn't last very long. He didn't want that either. So he stayed in formation till he had had enough. He hailed the Narn captain and said, "Captain G'Toll, we cannot keep this up any longer. Our ships are taking a beating and we are not killing them fast enough. If we keep this up, we will be destroyed."

"I am prepared for that." G'Toll replied hotly.

"I know you are prepared to die but that will not achieve anything. Clearly, the Centauri has already defeated your fleet and if they manage to defeat us too, then who is going to stop them in the future. Remember, this is just a battle. There is no shame in retreating from a battle to save an empire. Neither is there is glory in winning a battle if it destroys the empire in the process."

"Very well, let's pull back," G'Toll agreed reluctantly. With that the three ships exited the battle leaving the victorious Centauri to gloat over their achievement.


	12. Strangers in the Night

Chapter Twelve: Strangers in the Night 

Dr Franklin arrived at Captain Sheridan's quarter as ordered but was surprised to find no one answering the door. He tried raising the captain on his communicator and that failed too. Puzzled, he called Ivanonva to see if she knew where the Captain was? She had no idea either. "He must be in his quarters. He hasn't left the station yet."

"Left the station? Where was he going?"

"He wouldn't say. All he said was that he was taking the shuttle somewhere and that he wasn't feeling well."

Dr Franklin had a bad feeling. "Commander, I'm going to enter his quarter. He may need medical assistance."

"Affirmative Doc."

With that, Dr Franklin overrode the door lock with his security code and entered the room. Everything looked normal until he made it to the Captain's room where he found Sheridan sprawled on his bed soaked in his own sweat. "Dr Franklin to the sickbay. I have a medical emergency in the captain's quarter. I need a stretcher team ASAP."

Payne's fleet had finally arrived at the Vree colony and offloaded the evacuees much to the relief of the crew who had just about had enough of it. Even Payne was feeling good, his other problems not withstanding. Finally he was going to get a good nights sleep. He had no sooner lain down in bed when he was distracted by the presence of a stranger in his room. He bolted out of bed and reached for his communicator but the stranger stopped him.

"That wont be necessary Captain," the stranger began. "I mean you no harm."

"Who are you? What are you doing in my room?"

"Who I am is not important Captain. Besides, I am not really here. This is just a holographic representation of myself."

"Then what do you want?"

"Actually, I am here to ask you for a favor. You see, when you and your ships came into this universe, you started a chain of events that broke the circle."

"Circle? What circle?"

"That is irrelevant, what matters now is that the circle has been broken. You have started a chain of events that will bring much death and misery to this universe if it is not fixed. That's why I need your help."

"How come you aren't fixing it yourself? You must possess the ability to do so."

"Maybe, but the time is not right. I cannot reveal my presence until then."

"And when is that?"

"That's not important either. What is important right now is that you have to protect Babylon 5. President Clark has sent a fleet of fifty ships to retake it and without your help it can't be done."

"Why me?"

"You are the only ones I can count to do the job right."

"What if I don't want to help?"

"I can't force you into this but remember, this will come to bite you in the back if we don't fix it."

"Alright, how do I know you are telling us the truth?" he countered.

"You don't. You will have to take my word for it."

"That's it? What makes you think I will put my ships at risk?"

"I will have to trust you to do the right thing."

There was silence as Payne thought it over. "When is this fleet arriving at Babylon 5?" he finally asked.

"Just over two day."

"I can't make it there on time even if I wanted to. Even at flank speed, it will take more than two days to make it to Babylon 5."

"Leave that to me," with that the figure wavered and vanished leaving Payne alone with his thoughts.

The retreat from the Narn home world had put a damper on morale in the combined Klingon and Narn fleet. Everyone went about their duties silently, repairing damages sustained during battle. The Narn's were especially hard hit. They had just watched the subjugation of their planet and had not been able to stop it. Something had to be done to boost their combined ego. There was nothing more devastating to a ship than a crew who believed they were already beaten. Captain G'Toll knew this and he had a plan.

Taman materialized in a dimly lit corridor somewhere on the Centauri ship. He swiftly drew his knife and scanned the area around him. Spotting a dark alcove so he quickly strode towards it. Once there, he listened intensely. It was all clear. With feline grace the burly Klingon quickly made his way down the narrow corridor until he came to a junction where it branched to either side. He stopped to listen once more. Far down the left corridor, he could hear approaching footsteps. He pressed his body tightly against the bulkhead as he counted the number of distinctive footsteps, just a pair. He was quite happy with it as dealing with more than one opponent at a time could make a ruckus. His mission depended on stealth more than anything else. Like most other Klingons assigned to this mission, he hadn't been happy with his orders at first, preferring to meet his enemy face to face. But the Narn Captain had made a convincing argument and in the end they had relented. This mission would depend on cunning and stealth as much as bravery and courage but the results would be the same. He held his breath as the unwary Centauri got closer and closer and finally walked right past him. At that moment Taman pounced. His left hand wrapped around the unfortunate Centauri's head and mouth holding it in a vice-like grip while he slit the victim's throat with his daqtagh. The unfortunate bastard thrashed out violently and almost slipped out of his grip. Taman quietly cursed himself for being careless and gripped his victim tighter util it went completely limp. Only then did he gently drop it back to the ground and wiped off his bloodied daqtagh. Blood continued to pour out of the severed throat and pooled around the lifeless body but Taman was already gone.

Silently, he made his way up the corridor till he noticed a door that was slightly ajar. Someone was being careless and would pay dearly for it with their life. Gingerly, he pushed the door and it opened with a slight creak. He waited for a moment to make sure he had not disturbed the occupants of the room before he stepped into it. The room was dark, much darker than the corridor he had just stepped in from but his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. Thousands of years of evolution as top predators had given the Klingons excellent night vision, much like a cat in fact. In the darkness, he could make out a structure that resembled double-decker bunks and they were both occupied. A wicked smile formed on his face as he approached the lower bunk. His victim was sleeping soundly completely unaware of the danger silently enveloping him. Taman deftly put his left hand over the Centauri's mouth and pinned down the body with his own mass as he slit the throat in one swift motion. Blood gushed out of the severed arteries with much force and his victim thrashed out but this time it was under control and did not make a ruckus except for the gurgling noise as blood entered the severed trachea. After what seemed like an eternity, the body went limp and Taman stood up taking care not to step into the pool of blood that was slowly spreading across the room. Without further ado, he stepped out of the room and made his way back to the dark alcove. He gently tapped his communicator and whispered, "Mission accomplished. One to beam back up."

This same scenario played out on different levels of the station as more than a dozen special-op teams conducted their ghastly business. The plan had succeeded without a single hitch.


	13. Checkmate!

Chapter Thirteen: Checkmate! 

Dr. Franklin moved about the ward with practiced efficiency, trying his best to stabilize his patient, whose condition was deteriorating rapidly. He had already taken samples and was running a barrage of tests. So far, none had come up positive. That just meant that he had to run even more tests. In the mean time, his priority was to keep his patient alive and that was proving to be quite a challenge. The patient's core body temperature had risen rapidly, reaching dangerous levels, and all attempts to cool it down had failed, forcing him to resort to drastic measures. Blood had to be rerouted outside the body, cooled down, and re-transfused back into the body. It worked, but it introduced the possibility of further infections. Then there was the coma. Shortly after Captain Sheridan had been brought in, he had slipped into a deep coma. Thereafter, his breathing had stopped and he had to be ventilated. Dr. Franklin just hoped that there would be no more complications. He already had his plate full. This prevented him from noticing that Commander Susan Ivanova had stumbled in. It was only when she walked into a bank of instruments, knocking them to the floor, that he noticed her at all. He rushed over to help her and noticed how weak and delirious she was. With the help of some nurses, he got her onto one of the bio-beds and started examining her. The first thing he noticed was her unusually high temperature and shallow, labored breathing. He checked her blood pressure, which was dangerously low. Her pulse was erratic.

No sooner had he finished stabilizing Ivanova when another patient was rushed in and had eerily similar symptoms. There was a pattern emerging and Dr. Franklin could not miss it. He just prayed he was wrong. Unfortunately, he was right. As the hours passed by, more and more patient were brought in, slowly at first, but then the trickle turned into a steady stream. His hospital was quickly inundated. When a nurse informed him that there was a call for him, he almost snapped at her. "Who is it?"

"It's Captain Hiroshi," she replied. "Shall I tell her you are busy?"

He wanted to brush her off but then changed his mind. "Never mind, I'll take it."

Captain Hiroshi had been informed as soon as Captain Sheridan and Commander Ivanova had been hospitalized. She was the most senior officer remaining and it had fallen upon her to take over the reins. When she finally got a hold of Dr. Franklin, his prognosis was grim. What seemed at first to be unrelated incidents was turning out to be an emerging epidemic that was sweeping the station. His recommendation was to quarantine the whole station until they had a handle on the situation. That could take days, weeks, or even months. There was simply no way to know.

This was all bad news for Hiroshi, but she had even more pressing things to take care of. The massive Earth Force armada was still on its way. Now that the station was effectively incapacitated, she had to come up with a way to defend it with just the two remaining ships. No matter how much she tried, the math just didn't add up. Obviously, Captain Sheridan had had something planned but with him out of the picture, there was no way to know what it was. Damn!

"Captain, the jump gate is activating,"

"Is there anything scheduled for arrival?" she asked.

"No, not at the moment. We were expecting the freighter Ulysses couple of hours ago but she hasn't shown up yet. It might be her."

He was right, for as soon as the vortex formed, the freighter Ulysses jumped out. But all was not well. Captain Hiroshi could clearly see the ship venting atmosphere and trailing a field of debris.

"Babylon 5, this is the freighter Ulysses requesting emergency docking. We have had an accident on board and are quickly loosing life support."

"Ulysses, this is Captain Sandra Hiroshi. That's a negative. Babylon 5 is under quarantine."

"Babylon 5, our life support is already failing. The lives of my crew are at stake. I have to dock immediately."

Damn! This wasn't good. Reluctantly, she agreed. "Alright Ulysses, I am transmitting the docking coordinates. You may proceed at your discretion. Be advised, the station is quarantined and you will not be able to leave once you dock."

"Affirmative Captain. Thanks for allowing us to dock."

Lieutenant David Carlton couldn't believe how easy it had been so far. Their farce was working like a charm and they had been cleared for docking. But he was still on edge as this was only the beginning. Onboard the "stricken" Ulysses, a thousand fully armed GROPOs waited, ready to storm the station as soon as they docked. Anxiously, he paced the deck of the cargo hold, fidgeting with his blaster rifle. This wasn't the first time he had been in action, but it was hard thing to get used to. Finally he heard the clang of the docking clamps followed by the hiss of the docking bay doors opening. That was quickly followed by a several loud bangs as his GROPOs tossed concussion grenades at the waiting emergency rescue crew. A brief roar of gunfire followed and then silence fell. "That was quick," he thought. Obviously, the station personnel hadn't been expecting such a brazen boarding action. "D Company, move out now!" came the urgent order over his headset. It was time. He signaled his men to follow him.

With speed born out of years of combat training, Lieutenant Carlton and his "D" company rushed into the station. A quick scan of the area revealed that another company had already secured it, so they headed straight for their assigned target. Each person in the sixteen-man company knew the layout of the station intimately. The long trip from Earth had given them enough time to thoroughly go over the schematics of their assigned target. It also helped that they each carried a personal computer that had been uploaded with the station's blueprint for any contingencies. It was however unnecessary. Like a well-oiled machine they threaded their way through a maze of corridors. Whenever a guard or any other resistance was met, it was quickly and thoroughly dealt with. Nothing was going to get in their way.

Finally, they got to their target. It was a power substation that housed one of the numerous transformers feeding a large section of Blue Sector. He checked his watch. It was T minus two minutes. They had made it with plenty of time to spare. He switched on his radio, "D Company in position," he reported in.

"Roger that D company. Proceed on schedule," the reply came from command

"Roger that command," he replied, staring at his watch.

When the time struck, he gave the signal. With that, one of his men blew open the door which had already primed with explosives. Even before the smoke cleared his men rushed into the substation and spread out eliminating everyone they encountered. In less than a minute, it was all over.

"Command, this is D company. Objective secured."

"Roger that D company. Hold position."

A similar scenario played out all over the station, but not all of it went as smoothly. Intense firefights broke out between small groups of attackers and the defenders.

Lieutenant Crammer was the most senior personnel on duty at C&C. Normally, someone of his rank would not have been in charge, but these were not normal times. There was an epidemic spreading across the station and a large number of people had already succumbed to it. He feared that it was only getting worse. Two of the top commanding officers were among those that had been incapacitated. To make matters worse, the Earth Force armada was only hours away. How they were supposed to make a stand was beyond him. But nonetheless, he was a soldier and he would make a stand or die trying.

"Sir, we just lost power in several sections of Blue Sector and I haven't been able to raise anyone there at all."

"Not now," Lieutenant Crammer thought to himself. "Send someone down there to check it out," he ordered. But that wasn't the end of it. Several seconds later there were frantic calls from all over the station about firefights. Slowly a picture started to emerge. Heavily armed GROPOs were appearing out of nowhere and taking over vital areas of the station.

"Battle stations!" he ordered immediately. "Inform Captain Hiroshi that we have borders and get me station security." It was only then that it clicked in that he himself was likely a prime target. "I want all personnel in here armed," he snarled. "Now!"

The people around him were stunned for a moment but quickly understood what was happening. Some tried to figure out how this had happened but that was a task best left for later. Everyone hurried over to the weapons locker and armed themselves with whatever they could lay their hands on. It wasn't much but at least it made them feel a little better.

"Captain, its for you. Lieutenant Crammer from the station."

"What does he want?"

"He's screaming that they have borders."

That last bit threw Captain Hiroshi off for a second. "Did you say that they have been boarded?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Put him through."

The sight of a ruffled Lieutenant Crammer greeted Hiroshi. "Lieutenant, what's going on?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, we have been boarded. We don't know how yet, but there are intense firefights going on throughout the station. From what we can tell, they have already taken over several sections. We need help immediately. We don't have enough personnel to repel these attacks."

Her mind was racing a mile minute already. Between the two ships she had just over three hundred GROPOs. She could commit that to the station but once she did, they would have to be left there. For all she knew, it could even be a death sentence for all of them. Dr. Franklin hadn't been able to isolate the virus yet. But then again she did not have a choice. She had to secure the station at all costs. "Damn!" Where had they come from? But deep in her heart she knew the answer. The Ulysses was the only ship that had docked recently and because of the emergency they hadn't scanned her before she had been allowed to dock. She had allowed a Trojan horse straight into the station right before her eyes.

"I'll see what I can do, Lieutenant. In the meantime hold C&C at all costs. I don't want them taking over the whole station. Do you hear me?" she demanded.

A nervous "Yes Ma'am," was all she got.

Turning to the communication station, she ordered, "Open a channel to the Ulysses."

"Ulysses, this is Captain Sandra Hiroshi. Stop your boarding action immediately or I will open fire. You have ten seconds to comply." Turning back to her crew, she continued, "Arm main cannons. Target the Ulysses."

"Captain Hiroshi, this is Captain Harris Leon. You will do no such thing. Even as we speak my men are taking over the station and there is nothing you can do to stop them. Besides, I have a cargo of twenty ten-megaton nukes on board. You don't want them going off so close to the station, would you?"

Hiroshi was about to reply when she was cut off, "Then again, I think you have bigger fish to fry." He glanced at his watch, smiled cruelly, and cut the transmission.

Right on cue, the surrounding space started filling with vortices as the long awaited Earth Force armada spilled out. Captain Hiroshi realized that it was truly a checkmate.


	14. Actions Reactions

**Chapter Fourteen: Actions/Reactions**

Once General Braddock's ship exited hyperspace, Braddock saw that his plan had been executed flawlessly. The freighter Ulysses was already docked at Babylon 5 and his GROPOs were taking control of the station even now. "Open a channel to the rebels," he ordered the communications officer.

"Channel open sir."

"This is General Nathaniel Braddock to all rebel vessels in the area. Surrender immediately or face total destruction." He knew that Babylon 5 was almost secured and he wouldn't have to worry about it but there were two rebel ships that could offer some challenge. There was no way in hell they could hope to defeat his fleet but you never knew. These traitors could be like cornered animals.

Things were steadily going downhill for Captain Hiroshi. First it was the epidemic that swept through Babylon 5, practically incapacitating it. Next it was the boarding action by Earth Force GROPOs. To top it off, she was now facing an ultimatum from this General Braddock. "Get me ship wide," she ordered. Then she spoke. "This is Captain Hiroshi to all hands. We are currently facing an overwhelming opposition consisting of over fifty vessels. They want us to surrender unconditionally. I'm sure you know what that means. The best-case scenario is that we will see the inside of some prison for the rest of our lives. The more likely scenario is that we will all be executed at their convenience. I don't intend to make it easy for them. However, the decision is yours. You can choose to leave this vessel immediately and take your chances with them. I will hold nothing against you if you choose to do so. The rest of you, man your stations. We will show these bastards what we are truly made of."

Everyone knew their time was up. Whether they fought or surrendered, the outcome was going to be the same. It was thus no wonder that most of them decided to stay and fight on. They were soldiers first and foremost and intended to go down fighting. Even the Klingons would have admired their resolve. Without fanfare or drama, both rebel vessels powered up their engines, armed their weapons and charged headlong into battle. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade would have been a fitting tribute for them.

Cannon to the right of them,

Cannon to the left of them,

Cannon in front of them,

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly the rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell,

Rode the six hundred.

Alyt Kalanga did not really care for his assignment. "Why should we help them?" he had asked.

"Because they are to be our allies in the coming war against the darkness," was the reply.

"But they are just barbarians. How can we rely on them? Did they not attack us in the Sh'lekk'tha star system?"

"Yes," he was told. "However, the faction at Babylon 5 is our best hope. That is why it must not fall into Earth Force hands."

He was not happy with the answers but he had his orders. Protect Babylon 5. Keep Earth Force out. That was what he was going to do. After all, he was a warrior and he had his orders. With that in mind, he ordered, "Jump!"

When the four Sharlins exited hyperspace, they were greeted with a spectacular fireworks display. None of it was directed at them but the situation was grave nonetheless. It put their mission at jeopardy.

"This is Alyt Kalanga of the Minbari war cruiser Tallus to all vessels. Hold fire immediately. Failure to do so will be dealt with deadly force."

Captain Hiroshi couldn't believe their luck. After being battered and burned at the hands of death, reprieve came in the form of a fleet of Minbari Sharlins. They were not out of the woods yet though. They had to survive just a little longer. It was going to be a challenge.

General Braddock couldn't believe what was happening. Just as he was about to put an end to this silly rebellion, the Minbari show up spoiling his victory. To make matters worse, the whole fleet had suddenly ceased fire without his explicit orders. That's what happens when a nine hundred pound gorilla walks into a barroom brawl. Even the drunk comes to their senses. This enraged the general and he yelled into his microphone, "Continue firing you bastards."

For a moment, no one stirred. No one dared to defy the Minbari. They had all learned their lessons from the Earth-Minbari war. But then there is always someone who is either very brave or very stupid. A lone gunner in the fleet opened fire on one of the 'rebel' vessels. The Minbari response was swift and deadly. All Sharlins opened up on the unfortunate vessel reducing it to bits of molten metal and burning bodies. After this show of force, not even General Braddock dared do anything. The action to retake Babylon 5 came to a sudden end with the arrival of the Minbari.

The lone hologram figure showed up in Captain Payne's ready room for the second time. Unlike the first time, Payne was prepared for it.

"So, have you decided on your course of action, Captain?"

"Yes, I have taken it up with the fleet and they have decided to help."

"That was a wise decision."

"That still leaves one problem and that's where you come in. I hope you are still capable of taking care of it."

"Ah, yes." With that a barely visible rift opened up in front of the fleet. "Captain, please take your vessels through that rift and follow the beacon. It will take you straight to Babylon 5."

Payne looked at the rift with a suspicious eye. He could see a sea of swirling red and black through the opening. "Are you sure it's safe?" he asked, letting doubt creep into his voice.

"Perfectly. Just follow the beacon I have laid out for you."

"What kind of space is that?" he asked out of curiosity.

"It is what the locals here call hyperspace, or at least a deeper version of it. It should take you no more than fifteen minutes to get to Babylon 5."

With a deep bow, the hologram flickered out before Captain Payne could ask any more questions.

"Here goes nothing," he thought to himself as he ordered the fleet into the rift.

The voyage through the rift was remarkably uneventful. The strong eddies and currents could have made navigation tricky had it not been for the powerful beacon that kept them true to course. As for the science team, this was a heaven-sent opportunity to study a new phenomenon albeit a short one. No sooner had they settled down they came to the end of their ride as another rift deposited them five hundred thousand kilometers from the Epsilon Eridani III system.

"Scan the system," he quickly ordered.

"Already on it sir." Followed momentarily by, "There seem to be numerous ships around the Babylon 5 station sir. Looks like fifty odd Earth vessels and four Minbari vessels."

"Shit, the Minbari just opened fire on one of the Earth vessels."

"That's it. Red alert. Helm, take us in. Full impulse."

Alyt Kalanga was happy that at least one of the vessels had defied his order. He never like the humans and was only too happy to get a chance to blow some of them away. Just then there was a cry from one of the sensor operators. "Eight ships inbound at high speed. God, look at their velocity."

Then another filled in, "It's those new Earth Ships. The ones from the Sh'lekk'tha system."

Kalanga did not waste a second, "Target those ships. I want them destroyed at once."

"They are moving too fast for a clean intercept. We need to launch fighters."

"Then do it. Launch all fighters!" Kalanga roared. He was clearly incensed.

"Not again," was the first thing that came to Payne's mind. These boneheads never learnt a lesson. Even as his ship was taking evasive action, he ordered, "Open a channel to the lead Minbari ship."

"This is Captain Payne to the lead Minbari vessel. Cease fire immediately."

Cease-fire immediately? How dare they order the Minbari? These humans need to be taught a serious lesson. "All ships open fire. Destroy all of them."

With that, every gun on the Sharlins opened up. Even those not in the firing arc of the Federation ships opened up; albeit on the Earth Force ships. To them they were all the same. Humans.

General Braddock was stunned. Even though Earth Force had succumbed to their demands, the Minbari still opened up on his ships. Damn Boneheads. "All ships, counter fire," he yelled.

Captain Payne was stunned. Instead of a cease-fire, the weapons fire volume just skyrocketed as every ship in the area joined in. Earth Force ships began to die even as they fought tooth and nail. "Target the Minbari ships. Take them out," he ordered with a heavy heart.

Like eagles, the eight Federation ships dove at the poor Minbari. Phasers struck out shearing away chunks of crystalline armor. Photon torpedoes ravaged huge portions of the proud Sharlins, quickly reducing them into pools of molten slag. Alyt Kalanga knew it was over for his ships. One was already dead; the remaining three weren't in much better shape. "Launch a communication probe. We have to let the rest of the fleet know what is happening here. Earth must pay for this." Soon thereafter, his ship joined its comrades as it was also blown apart into millions of tiny sparkling bits. With that, the second Earth-Minbari war had just begun.


	15. Shadow Warriors

Chapter Fifteen: Shadow Warriors 

The stealth action against the Centauri had gone so flawlessly that it formed a pattern for further actions. The small Klingon and Centauri contingent did not rush headlong against the mighty Centauri fleet; instead they took a chapter out of guerilla warfare. The first to face the brunt of this new tactic were a pair of Vorchan that were patrolling on the fringe of Centauri space. Like before, small groups of warriors, both Klingon and Narn materialized throughout vital areas of the two ships but their actions were far from covert. They were here not just to sow fear and uncertainty among the enemy rank, but also to take the ship itself.

A group of six Narn warriors materialized on the bridge and shot the command crew before they could even react. Similarly, others took over engineering and other vital sections of the ship. With the command and control sections overrun, the two ships were subjugated fairly easily. Small pockets of resistance found out the hard way that it didn't pay to put up a fight. The Narn weren't in a forgiving mood. They just flooded the affected area with vacuum; a miserable way to die even for the Centauri.

The successful capture of the two Vorchan, meant a lot to the Narn fleet. It was the one thing they lacked in quantity. They had tried for years to expand their fleet but their economy just wasn't big enough to sustain any appreciable growth. The Centuari knew that and had sustained a low level skirmish to stymie the growth of their fleet. But things were about to change. With the help of the Klingons and their transporter tech, they were going to put an end to that. They were going to use their enemies' strength against them. And when the time was right, they would strike back, right at their throat. Putting and end to their reign once and forever.

Lord Refa paced the floor nervously as he awaited the emperor to summon him. Things weren't going well for the Royal Centauri Navy in recent days and the emperor felt he needed to hold someone accountable. How could the emperor have thought he was responsible? It was those bumbling idiots at the front who deserved to be hung for their incompetence. How could they have allowed a bunch of savage Narn to get the better of them? First, it was the unexpectedly fierce defense they had put up during the retaking of Narn. That had cost too many ships and loyal men. The price had been too high for the god-forsaken piece of rock. But that was just the beginning. The following day, crew from several ships had awoken to a grisly scene of multiple murders. They had been slaughtered during their sleep, their throats slit open while their bunkmates slept soundly. No doubt the Narn had infiltrated their ranks with dissenters. What he could not understand was how an upright citizen of the Republic could be made to turn against their own. Brain washing? Telepathic manipulation? Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Even worse was that ships were disappearing without a trace. It was always the ones that were either working alone or in small groups. He had a hard time believing it was the Narn who were responsible. Those savages were neither bright enough or did they have resources for it. But what about those alien ships that had assisted them? That had to be it. Whoever they were, held the answer. No matter, he had new allies of his own. All he needed was to get the Emperor's consent and he could set the plans into full motion.


	16. Ungrateful

**Chapter Sixteen: Ungrateful**

The shadow lord was ecstatic at hearing the latest news. He hadn't expected the Centauri to so easily accept his assistance. As luck would have it, fate dealt them a bad hand and now their only hope of a reprieve lay with the Shadows. A Centauri fleet of twenty primus battle cruisers was on its way to a Shadow shipyard to be outfitted with Shadow tech. In the coming days there would be more ships and more transformations. War was inevitable and that made the Shadow lord giddy. Soon the Vorlons and their children would learn the error of their ways. Only the strong would survive the coming war to become even stronger only proving their point. Finally they, the masters of chaos, the lords of darkness, would be free to leave for the rim.

Captain Payne was tired of giving ultimatums but lately, that's what he found himself doing over and over again. He had finished dealing with the crazy Minbari but there were over forty vessels remaining. "To all vessels in the area, stop all action immediately. This is your last and only warning."

No more needed to be said. These diminutive ships had so effortlessly destroyed four Sharlins and nobody wanted a piece of them. Payne was more than happy with that. Too many lives had been lost today.

"This is Captain Payne to the lead Earth Force vessel. I want you out of this area. Now!" he emphasized.

"Captain Payne, this is General Braddock. This station legally belongs to Earth Force. You have no jurisdiction here. Please leave this area immediately."

"General Braddock, I don't think you understood me. That was not a request. I don't think you want to test my resolve."

"This is a travesty. This is an Earth station. You have no …"

Payne cut him off. "General Braddock, you have ten minutes. You can either leave under your own steam or I will do it for you. If I were you, I'd take the first option."

"Wait a minute Captain, that's not enough time. I have ships that have no power. How do you expect me to clear them out in that time," he struggled for time.

"You will evacuate those ships, transfer the personnel to the other ships and get the hell out of here."

"What about the ships?"

"General Braddock, don't try my patients." With that he terminated the line. Instead, he opened a new one to the station. "Babylon 5, this is Captain Payne of the Federation ship USS Baikonur. Please respond."

"Captain Payne, this is Lieutenant David Carlton. I am the officer in charge of the station. However, Captain Sandra Hiroshi is the senior-most officer here. She might not be reachable at the moment though. We lost all contact with her ship during the fight."

"I see. Lieutenant Carlton, we are here to lend assistance to you. What sort of aid do you need?"

"Anything you can give. We still have thousands of GROPOs fighting all over the station."

"What's that?"

"Ground pounders. Marines."

"I see. You might want to let them know that their support fleet is leaving without them in ten minutes. So unless they want to spend the rest of their lives in some holding cell, they might want to pack up and leave too."

"Thanks!"

"In the meantime, I will see what I can do to help Captain Hirsoshi."

"That would be greatly appreciated."

The ten-minute ultimatum came and went, but the Earth Force ships were still around. To their credit they were transferring crew from the disabled ships at a frenzied pace. Payne had deliberately given them such short notice and just to make sure they understood his resolve, the Federation ships hovered around, overseeing the whole operation. There was a similar frenzied activity onboard Babylon 5 itself. The GROPOs that had so effectively gained ground earlier were giving it up just as quickly; afraid their ride would leave without them. It was bittersweet for them though. They had put their lives at risk for every inch of the station and were not happy at having to give it up without a fight. They left many parting gifts in the form of booby traps. Finally after three hours, the last of them got on the freighter and departed.

Sandra Hiroshi couldn't believe her luck. Being snatched from the jaws of death was an extra ordinary thing even for someone with her experience. The wild roller coaster ride she had just been through was still heavy on her psyche as her shuttle touched down on the station. She was still weary about coming onboard but the Federation captain had convinced her that they had a cure for the plague ravaging the station. He had personally vouched for her safety and to prove his good faith had volunteered to meet her on the station. After such an offer, she really couldn't back down. After all, she was in charge here. With a final sigh, she stepped out onto the station to take command. She did it with an apprehensive breath as if to see if she could smell the foul air that was poisoning the station all around her.

Satisfied with her sniff test, she got down to business managing the massive cleanup and recovery effort. It engrossed her so completely, she forgot about the Federation captain until his shuttle docked. Just like their ships, the shuttle was clean and graceful. None of the normal noise and vibration associated with a regular shuttle, just a pair of glowing pods on the bottom on which it landed. A ramp at the rear opened up and the group of five people walked out. Hirsoshi noticed that all of them were humans unlike the mixed crew she had seen on the bridge before. She took it in stride and approached the group.

"Welcome aboard Babylon 5," she greeted them. "I'm Captain Sandra Hiroshi."

"Thomas Payne," Payne answered. "This is Commander Josephine Yara, my Executive Officer. Lieutenant Christopher Leon, the ship's councilor and ensign Singh and ensign Nguyen from security."

Hiroshi acknowledged all of them and finally turned back to the captain, "Captain Payne, I had assumed you would have a medical contingent with you."

"Ah yes, they will be here on the next shuttle. They had to get their equipment together."

"I see. In that case, shall we go to a conference room?"

"Please lead the way Captain. I'm sure you have lots of questions for me."

Ambassador Delen was still reeling from the events that had just taken place outside Babylon 5. She had been monitoring the comm. channels throughout the incident and was aware of the whole events as it unfolded but could not still bring herself to believe what had transpired. She was pacing the floor restlessly when her chamber door opened letting the form of ambassador Kosh glide through. She felt his presence immediately and turned around to greet him. "Ambassador Kosh, what brings you here?"

In his usual cryptic way, Kosh replied, "The circle has been broken. They must not be allowed to contaminate it any further."

Delen knew what he meant. It was those strange new Earth Force ships. Someone was helping them. It had to be the shadows. How dare Earth ally themselves with the shadows? Weren't they supposed to be her allies against the coming darkness?

"They must not be allowed to contaminate the circle," Kosh repeated as he glided out of her residence. Delen knew what had to be done. The Vorlons had spoken.

"Let me get this clear? You are actually humans from an alternate reality?" Hiroshi repeated it unable to grasp the idea. "And you accidentally transmitted this plague to us?"

"Yes, we unwittingly transmitted this virus to you. But we have a cure for it and Dr Sina is preparing it as we speak."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"Well, we will treat the infected people with an antiviral drug. The rest will be infected with a benign virus that has been genetically altered with the markers of the Marsis virus. Their bodies will learn to recognize the protein sequence and develop a natural immunity to it so the next time they get hit with the actual Marsis virus, they wont have any problem combating it."

"I see," she replied. "But what about the Earth Force personnel? Weren't they exposed to the same virus? This disease could wreck havoc back on Earth."

"Well ahead of you," Payne replied with a smile. "We have already take care of that."

Hiroshi was about to ask him how they did that when the Minbari Ambassador stormed into the meeting.

"Ambassador Delen, what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" she was offended. "Let me ask you, what are they doing here?" she said pointing an accusing finger at the Federation crew. "Aren't you aware of what they just did?"

"Yes I am. They saved us from being killed by Earth Force."

Delen completely ignored that last statement. "They destroyed four Minbari ships," she spat out with venom in her voice. "They are nothing but minions of the shadows. They must be destroyed."

"Ambassador Delen, please calm down. They are not who you think they are," Hiroshi pleaded.

"Enough," Delen brushed her off. "Minbar has declared war against Earth Force. I suggest you get them off of this station immediately. I may not be able to stop some young warrior from blowing this station when they find out that you are sheltering them." With that she stormed out of the room.

Hirsoshi exchanged surprised looks with the Federation captain. The Minbari had clearly made up their mind. "I'm sorry Captain Payne, but you heard her. Even if I am inclined to believe you, I cannot have you here when the Minbari show up. My duty is to protect this station. I will have to ask you to leave immediately."

Payne understood what Hiroshi was going through. Even though she believed in their sincerity she had only one goal and that was the safety of the station. He could respect her for that. "I understand," he told her. "We will leave as soon as the doctor and his team can administer the cure. It shouldn't take more than an hour." With that, he and his team left the station. This certainly was a cold cold world. No matter which direction they turned, it gave them the same cold shoulder.


	17. I Will Survive!

**Chapter Seventeen: I Will Survive!**

The Leningrad was the first of the new perimeter defense stations created after the Earth-Minbari war. It wasn't particularly large but was heavily armed and fortified. At places, it sported up to six-meter thick, extremely dense armor and bristled with weapons of all types. All in all, it was one mean nut to crack. Supporting it was a complement of three Omega class destroyers, four Nova class dreadnoughts and half a dozen Hyperion class heavy cruisers. It was a formidable force indeed. To the Minbari fleet facing it, all of this was a moot point. To date, no one had been able to defeat their vaunted stealth system and that made all the difference. They couldn't be killed if they couldn't be hit. Without even a bit of trepidation, they proceeded with their attack.

Captain Samantha Tyr knew she and her ship was in for a fight of its life. She had served onboard the Bellerophon during the Earth-Minbari war and knew exactly what those five Sharlins were capable of. "Keep us in formation, Lieutenant," she reminded the helmsman. They had to close rank and coordinate fire if they were to have any chance of surviving. Seconds passed until they were finally in range. The lead ship opened with a volley and that was the signal for the rest of the fleet to follow. "Fire!" she ordered. A low rumble emanated throughout the ship as all weapons let loose a tremendous volley. To her dismay, none of the shots hit their mark. They tried again and again but it was all the same. At this time, the Minbari opened up with their counter barrage and did not have any problems targeting the Earth Force ships. Neutron cannons and fusion beams slammed into the tough sides of the Earth Force ships. Despite their impressive size and density, the armor could not withstand the barrage for long and succumbed to it catastrophically. Hundreds of lives were lost, as the ships were turned into twisted, melting wrecks.

With the fleet out of the way, the avenging Minbari proceeded to the station. It put up a brave fight, but it too fell quickly like the ships that were supporting it. Thus ended the first battle of the second Earth-Minbari war; a resounding defeat for the humans.

The Vostok was a Leningrad-class perimeter defense station that was located six light-years from the original Leningrad station. It was located in orbit of the fourth planet of the local star. Although her primary mission was as a perimeter defense for Earth, it was also protecting the mining operations on the planet below.

Admiral Yoshio Takanawa had just received news about the Minbari attack on the Leningrad and its ultimate destruction. He knew it was only a matter of time before he too would face the dreaded boneheads. They had waited for months for this push and it had finally begun. "Commander Sylver, have the men load the new missiles on all ships immediately." He was talking about the new IRIS missiles. These weapons had specially been designed with the Minbari in mind. It used a very old technology that had been adapted for modern use. Since the Minbari stealth precluded any use of modern active sensors, Earth Force scientists had resorted to a technology long shelved as obsolete. It involved an Infra Red Imaging Sensor coupled with a TV guidance system that would steer the missiles to their target. It was crude and short-ranged but remarkably effective. It was the best chance Earth Force had of striking back at the Minbari.

Captain Ling Yue was more than happy to see his ship loaded with the new IRIS missiles. Although it was short ranged, it was their last best chance. If it did not work as advertised, it would spell the doom of Earth Force and maybe humanity itself. But Yue was confident. He was an avid history buff and had studied many encounters where smaller, weaker forces had destroyed their opponents. He was determined to add another chapter to these haloed pages. "Commander Jackson, open a channel to all the captains. I want to go over the plans once again."

"Aye sir," he responded as he arranged the meeting.

Alyt Canakya and his fleet of five Sharlins dropped out of hyperspace just outside the orbit of the fifth planet well in view of the Human station. He did this deliberately because he wanted to give the humans to time to mount their defenses. He wanted to prove to them just how pathetic their military was. As he slowly approached the station, he glad to see them assemble a defense. Good, he would have fun tearing them to bits.

Captain Yue was glad the Minbari had decided to jump so far out in the system. It gave his fleet ample time to form up. He arranged his fourteen ships in a wedge formation with his ship at the tip flanked by the rest of his fleet. At the trailing edge was his fighter complement. Three hundred and ten fighters including the forty assigned to the station. He hoped it was enough. As the Minbari fleet finally got within range, he ordered all ships to open fire. The fourteen ships let loose a torrent of fire at the advancing Minbari fleet without much success. They did not let that stop them. They continued pouring everything they had.

Alyt Canakya looked amused as he watched the Earth Force ships let loose with everything they had. As expected, none of them found their mark even as they got closer and closer. Then, unexpectedly the enemy ships started back peddling breaking the wedge formation. "Damned humans, can't even face death with dignity," he thought to himself. "All ships, full speed ahead. Lets get this over with," he ordered his ships.

Captain could see that the Minbari had taken his bait. As he pulled his ship back breaking the wedge formation, the Minbari charged headlong running right into his trap. As planned, his lead ships continued falling back as the sides held ground, turning the original wedge into an inverted one. Before the Minbari realized, they were surrounded. Even as they tried to escape the fast closing trap, the ships on the sides closed in and the fighters raced around to cut off their escape. It was only then Yue gave his final order, "Fire the IRIS missiles." At that, all his ships fired the new missiles that they had been holding back. Each of the capital ships fired over fifty missiles apiece even as the fighters volleyed a pair each. That was well over a thousand missiles.

Alyt Canakya was cursing himself for having walked blindly into the human trap but he wasn't too worried yet. He still held all the aces as his stealth system was still functioning properly. Then, each of the Earth ship fired of a large number of missiles. To his surprise, a swarm of missiles headed straight for his ships. The unthinkable was happening. Desperately, he ordered suppressive fire but it was far too late. The missiles homed onto the five ships and exploded against the crystalline armor. It stopped the first few but the number of missiles slamming into it was too just many, just too fast. It failed spectacularly spelling an end of the Sharlins.

Captain Yue was happy with his handiwork. Even Hannibal would have been proud of it. Better yet, for the first time in human history, they had stopped a determined Minbari attack. And he hadn't lost a single capital ship! There would be much celebration tonight.

G'Tesh looked out the window at the growing fleet with the pride of a new dad. Scattered around the asteroid turned station lay a growing number of ships, both Narn and Centauri in design. It was an impressive collection but what was so special about this new fleet was what lay under the skin of these old warhorses. For several months now, their Klingon allies had been quietly transforming these ships into truly terrifying monsters. Shield generators, cloaking devices, disrupters, gravity generators, inertial dampners, structural integrity fields. The list went on and on. He knew these new upgrades weren't as powerful or up to date as the Klingon ones but that was because of the shortcoming of the ships themselves. They had not been built with the Klingon design in mind and could not accept all the changes that they wanted to make. For example, the ships lacked the powerful warp cores and so could not generate as much power as the Klingon ships could. This meant that they had to rely on much weaker disrupters and shields. Neither could they move with their speed and grace. Even then, it was a quantum leap over the old designs. To their credit, these old tubs could take a lot more punishment once the shields failed.

However, G'Tesh was a pragmatist and would not let this get into his head. He knew that beating back the massive Centauri fleet would take a lot of blood, sweat and tears. They would have to work hard to gain their liberty and freedom once again. However, not everyone in his fleet was as patient as him. Already, a group of captains wanted to test out their new ships. He had been holding off on any actions preferring to get as many ships ready and its crew trained as possible. These new systems may be wonderful but without the operators to work them, it might as well be dead. However, the time had come. Tonight, he was leading a fleet of twenty ships on a raid deep inside the Centauri space. "All ships, prepare for departure," he ordered. As each ship responded their readiness, he continued. "Raise cloak. Helm, take us out! Order the fleet to follow us."

The trip to the chosen target was uneventful. They had jumped into the system far enough to be out of Centauri sensor range, and then made a beeline towards their target under cloak. The target of choice was a massive military space station that supported this sector of space and was home to the 3rd Royal Centauri Fleet. It consisted of twenty Primus class battle cruisers and thirty Vorchan class attack cruiser. It would be a true test of the new systems.

"All ships, go to battle station. Drop cloak on my mark and commence attack!" he ordered. 'Now!"

Twenty Narn ships de-cloaked around the station. Disrupter fire poured into it quickly followed by photon torpedoes. The result was devastating. The meter-thick hull of the station did little to shield it from the combined assault as it quickly buckled under pressure. Not even a single defensive battery got to fire off a shot before the whole station was engulfed in a massive fireball.

Having completely destroyed the station, the twenty Narn ships turned to face the defending ships.

Kreta Tor was on duty on the Primus battle Cruiser Righteous Vengeance when twenty ships materialized out of thin air; or in this case cold vacuum. At first, he just noticed the Vorchans and believed it to be part of the newly upgraded fleet. He had heard rumors that all ships were soon to be upgraded in a similar fashion but believed it to be rumors only. It was only then he noticed the Narn G'Quan class heavy cruisers amongst the Vorchan and Primus'. Something was seriously wrong here. But before he could utter a word, the ships opened fire. First with some unidentified beam weapon followed by what could only be torpedoes. He quickly raised the alarm but it was too late for the station. Unable to bear the brunt of the attack, it exploded into a massive fireball taking out several ships that were parked around it.

Centauri ships were now beginning to stir but Kreta Tor knew it was already too late. It would take his ships several minutes to get to full alert and that was a minute too late. Suddenly the floor underneath him shook as his ship was hit by one of the beam weapons. Alarms began to go off as several compartments lost hull integrity. As the ship took more hits, he silently cursed, "Where the hell is the damn captain?" Suddenly, he was violently thrown out of his seat as a photon torpedo took out the aft half of his ship. Battered and bruised, he pulled himself back up to his seat only to notice that they had lost artificial gravity. He checked the instruments in front of him and realized his ship was doomed. There was no sign of the captain so as the senior-most officer on deck; he ordered all hands to abandon ship. No one ever made it to the escape pods. A second torpedo blasted the remains of the ship to kingdom come.

It took the Narn fleet only ten minutes to completely wipe out the Centauri 3rd fleet. Out of fifty ships assigned to the 3rd fleet, only thirteen survived because they were out on patrol. The rest died along with the station where they were based. It was a bad day for the Royal Centauri Navy.

Having completed their task, the victorious Narn fleet disappeared back into the night just as suddenly as they had appeared.


	18. Tranquility Base

Chapter Eighteen: Tranquility Base 

Captain Clara Burton stared at the images on the view screen of her nearly completed operation center. To an untrained eye, it was a jumble of unrelated gobble de goop but to her, it was a complete break down of work in progress on her new command. Just over three months ago, she had lost her previous command, the Akira-class USS Repulse. It was her first major loss in an otherwise stellar service record. She had taken it hard. Had it not been for their unique situation, she might have had spent months with a therapist working the demons out of her system. That was the level of her attachment to the ship and its crew. The Repulse hadn't been just a ship but was more like a cherished family member or perhaps a loyal friend. Now all she could do was take solace in the fact that her ship had gone down fighting to the very end.

That was in the past. She was in command again and was determined to make the most of it. Granted, it wasn't as sleek or sexy as the Repulse but she wasn't going anywhere fast, for this was the new station they were building. Although the project was quickly taking shape around her, it was far from complete. Only now, her construction crew was completing the major components of the facility. She wished she had more people working for her so she could complete this project quickly and on time. But that was just wishful thinking. It was a minor miracle that she had been able to pull so many engineers and construction crew from their small fleet. None of the other captains wanted to part with any personnel and only her masterful negotiation and captain Payne's direct orders had netted her with what she currently had. She was glad for it.

She walked over to one of the newly installed monitors and punched in some commands. "Fantastic!" she thought to herself. Green team was ahead of schedule. They had just finished installing the power grid that would supply the phaser banks in sector one. She made a mental note to congratulate the team.

Next she made her way down the corridor to conference room one, which was being used as project headquarters. There she met Lt Commander Edgar Mosely who was the project lead.

"Morning Captain," he greeted her. "What can I do for you this beautiful morning?"

"Morning Commander," she replied. "Chipper as always I see."

"You know me Captain,"

"Yes I do mister Mosely. Yes I do. So how is everything coming along?"

"Well, Green team's done with the power grid in sector one ahead of schedule. Blue and yellow are right on track. Red team ran into some problems earlier but is back on track. Only thing bothering me is progress with the white team. Some of the driver elements on the structural integrity field they are installing in sector four wasn't produced to spec and has to be completely replaced. That's holding up the next phase of project in that sector. Hopefully, they'll have that sorted out by the end of the day."

"Sector four, that's the general habitat section," she reminded herself. "Sounds like you have everything under control."

"Isn't that what you pay me for captain?" he shot back with a grin.

"Yes Mister Mosely, that's what we pay you for," she replied playing along.

Satisfied that he had everything under control, she started to leave when he Mosely asked, "How's Captain Payne's project coming along?" He was asking about the new Danube class runabouts that Captain Payne's team was building.

"I believe the first batch is ready for flight test. They should be taking it out for a spin later today."

"Wow, those guys must have been working on it night and day."

"I'm sure they were commander. I'll be glad when it's all completed."

"Both you and I Captain. I thought we had a bunch of raving lunatics in our neck of the woods but these people here sure take the cake."

"Seems that way doesn't it. Hopefully we'll find some friendlier ones next time."

"I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you Captain."

She laughed at that but she knew he was right. Going by their experience so far, it was far more likely that the next encounter would be just as unpleasant as any of the previous ones. "In that case mister Mosely, you'd better get back to work. And while you're at it, you might want to take a page out of Captain Payne's team's playbook. I want this station up and running ASAP."

"Yes sir," he replied in mock seriousness, knowing full well that the captain knew they were already pushing it.

Shankar Nair ran the diagnostics one more time on the newly finished Danube class runabout. Everything checked out fine as he expected. "Good," he thought to himself. He wanted everything in order when they took it out for its first test flight later that day. "Everything checked out ok, Bob. Go ahead and inform the bridge that we are all set for the test."

"You got it. What about the other one, did they find out what's wrong with it? Joyce was running into all kinds of problem with it earlier."

"I don't think so. She said something about the plasma injection manifold. Might have to swap it out completely."

"Bummer! We don't have a spare and the last time I talked to one of the replicator guys, he told me they can't take any new orders until tomorrow."

"Well, they're gonna to have to. Captain wants both there birds up and running by the end of the day."

"I know, I know. I told them but they told me to go to hell."

"Well, then go and talk to Lieutenant Burke. He should straighten those guys out."

"Can't you do it? I don't think the Lieutenant likes me very much."

"I don't think he likes anybody. Not even himself."

That got a few laughs from the crew within earshot. Lieutenant Burke sure had a reputation.

Captain Payne had just gotten off the line with Captain Burton when there was a knock on his door. "Enter," he ordered. It was Commander Sato.

"Captain, engineering just informed me that the first runabout is ready for its test flight."

"Good, inform the Lieutenant Taggart that his ride is ready. You can start the test at your discretion commander."

"Aye sir."

"By the way Commander, have you found enough people to crew all the runabouts?"

"Not yet sir. So far, I have only a dozen men who are qualified to pilot a Danube class runabout. That's not counting the regular flight crew but none of the captains will part with them."

"I don't blame them. Their priorities lie with their own ships. How long before we can train more pilots?"

"Well, we have twenty-two more who have current flight certifications but they are not qualified on the Danube class. They've already started their training and should be flight qualified in the next couple of weeks."

"That's not bad at all commander. Better than I expected."

"Yes sir. I'll have the pilots ready as soon as the boys in engineering can get me more runabouts."

"Good job Commander."

"Thank you sir."

Lieutenant Hermes J Taggart or Herm as his friends liked to call him walked around the newly constructed runabout, tugging, pushing and poking at the various parts that made up the outside of the ship. He wasn't expecting to find anything out of place but this was an age-old ritual amongst pilots. Even in this day and age of super computers, nothing was trustier than the old Mark I eyeballs or that's how the saying went. Finally satisfied he walked into the cockpit where his co-pilot, Ensign Vladimir was going over pre-flight checks.

"Everything check out ok?" he asked

"Yes sir, the engineering guys seem to have been very thorough."

"We'll find out soon enough Vlad," he replied settling into his chair. "Flight Control, this is Runabout Test Flight 1. Requesting permission to take her out."

"Runabout Test Flight 1, this is Flight Control, you have permission to take her out. Good luck with the tests"

"Thank you Flight Control," he acknowledged. With that he started the engines, which came to life with a muted hum. He listened to its rhythmic beat for a moment. Satisfied with what he heard, he gently eased the ship off the floor and out of the hangar where she had been built. Once clear of the ship, he gently opened the throttle and increased speed.

"Passing one thousand kilometers per hour," Vlad called out as the runabout passed the mark. "All systems are green."

"So far so good," he spoke aloud. After checking to see if the area was clear he continued, "Increasing speed to quarter impulse." With that he pushed the throttle even further and the ship responded to his command.

"Inertial dampers are slightly misaligned, I'm compensating for it" Vlad pointed out. He was right. For the briefest moment Taggart had felt a powerful force pressing him back into his seat. Had the misalignment been off by just a bit more, the consequence could have been disastrous. He'd heard enough horror stories from bygone era where entire crew had been killed when their inertial dampers had failed. Thank god those days were over. Modern inertial dampers were some of the most reliable pieces of equipment around.

"We're at quarter impulse," Vlad read out again. "All systems are still green."

"Good, how's the plasma temperature in the impulse engine?"

"It's running just a bit cooler than I like to see it, sir. It's comprising efficiency."

"Well, make a note of it. Give those engineers a reason to tear this thing apart again."

With that, he moved on to the next system. The list was long and tedious. He knew it would take most of his day going through it one by one.


	19. It Only Takes a Spark

Chapter Nineteen: It Only Takes a Spark … 

Captain Ragesh of the House Refa stood proudly on the bridge of his new ship. The House Refa was a strong and influential family in the Centauri Republic. Some would even go to say, Lord Refa had his eyes on the throne itself. He wouldn't have doubted that for a second. He knew his family patriarch too well and if given half the chance the old coot wouldn't hesitate for a second. If that ever came about, he would benefit hugely from it and he wasn't averse to the idea. But for now, he was quite happy with his new command; this newly refitted ship. It was still the same old Primus class battle cruiser at heart but all else was different. To begin with, she sported a new organic armor layered over the old hull. It looked hideous but tests had proven that it was over four times as effective as the old metallic armor. Furthermore, given enough time, it could regenerate itself to a certain degree. This by itself would be of little use in the heat of a battle; it would mean less time spent at the docks afterwards.

Next was the sensor upgrades. It was supposedly so advanced as to be able to defeat even the legendary Minbari stealth. That was yet to be proven but he had little reason to doubt the words of a First One. After all, they had walked amongst the stars long before the Minbari had even learnt to tame fire.

Finally, there were the new weapons. Gone were the old ion and laser cannons only to be replaced with a new Shadow-derived beam weapon. These devastating beams of raw energy made their previous weapons look like puny flashlights in comparison. They did come with a drawback though; their power consumptions were so high that realistic rates of fire during a battle left a lot to be desired. On the other hand, combined with the new sensor upgrades they wouldn't need to fire it often in the first place. Tests after tests had shown just what they could do.

To top things off, even their fighter complement had been upgraded receiving similar bio-armor and quantum bolt canons. This easily doubled the firepower of each of his ships and extended their power projection capability by a large factor.

All of this was just theory though and Captain Ragesh was itching to test out his new command. Ever since he had been given command he had wanted to take it out for a spin but had to wait until his crew was sufficiently trained with their new toys. The day had finally come. He was leading a small element of the 5th Royal Centauri Navy belonging to the House Refa to test out their new-found capabilities.

The Pak'Ma'Ra were a somewhat peaceful race whose space bordered the Centauri Empire. As part of the League of Non-aligned Worlds they felt quite safe despite their geographical location. They had so far been left alone by the Centauri and felt no reason to be alarmed. That was about to change. Captain Ragesh and his fleet of ten modified Primus' were bearing down on them like dark angels of death.

Showing curiosity more than trepidation, a small fleet Pak'Ma'Ra military ships approached the Centauri fleet and tried to hail them. Their efforts were duly ignored as the Centauri warships opened up with a terrifying broadside. Round after round from the Primus found their mark and opened up the hapless Pak'Ma'Ra warships like sardine tin cans. Horrified the few remaining ships scattered helter-skelter trying vainly to avoid the deadly fire coming from Centauri Primus's bearing down on them. They did not make it far before they joined their brethren as countless pieces of debris floating in the cold emptiness of space.

Meanwhile, the Pak'Ma'Ra defense force had been monitoring this encounter from their Command Center. It was buried several hundred meters deep in the hills surrounding the capital city, where it had been constructed centuries ago to withstand a nuclear war. Now it would have to withstand orbital bombardment from the Centauri. The leaders in charge were pragmatist and knew that the meager forces they had at their disposal would be of no match against the Centauri behemoths. They knew were next in line for the same devestating treatment.

"Dispatch all available ships to intercept the Centauri," he ordered knowing full well the futility of his command. "Contact the league and inform them that we're under attack from the Centauri."

Captain Ragesh was obviously enjoying the events folding out in front of him. As predicted, all his systems were performing to spec and the puny Pak'Ma'Ra defense force was being swept aside with ease. "They're trying to send out a message to the League," his communications officer interrupted his thoughts. Irritated more than anything he ordered, "Block all communication. Destroy everything."

Following his command, the fleet formed up and settled into orbit over Melat. From the surface, they looked like completely harmless specs of light zipping across the sky but looks can be deceptive. Ignoring the sporadic fire put up by some courageous defenders, they proceeded with their orbital bombardment. It would have been easy for them to totally annihilate the Pak'Ma'Ra but they weren't here to completely wipe out Melat; just to do enough damage to let everyone know that the Centauri lion had finally awoken from its long slumber.

For over a thousand years the Minbari people hadn't faced a significant loss in any battles. That was why, they had never considered developing new weapons and tactics. It just wasn't necessary. Their tried and true designs built by long lineage of the Worker Caste had served them so well. However, recent conflicts with the upstart humans had started to change this long held belief.

First it was the treacherous attack on the Drala Fi' by the one dubbed "Starkiller". This, while significant, had been an isolated event. However, the more recent conflicts had proven that these humans were fast learners and that made them extremely dangerous. They had somehow managed to come up with ways to defeat their stealth system, a feat no younger race had ever done and destroy several ships with devastating loss of Minbari lives. That had forced them to halt any further offenses indefinitely until an answer could be found. It had taken several months and it had taken dealings with black marketers to obtain several samples of this confounded weapon. In the end, it had been all worth it. The workers had finally figured out what exactly gave these weapons such devastating effectiveness. Surprisingly, it had been something very simple. Something the Minbari and actually most advanced races had forgotten a long time ago. Those crafty humans were using infrared signature emanating from the Sharlins to track them. Now that this was known, fixing it had been relatively simple; well not really, that would have taken major refitting of all ships but a patch had been found to fool the sensors on those missiles. Computer simulations had predicted their effectiveness but only real combat could really prove it. They were going to get to test it out very soon.


End file.
